Tuesday 7 August 2018 22:47, UK
Rory McIlroy will draw on memories of his PGA Championship win at Valhalla as he looks to end his four-year major drought at Bellerive Country Club this week.
McIlroy is short of course knowledge at the St Louis venue after storms curtailed Tuesday's practice rounds, but he feels the layout is similar to the Valhalla course on which he won his second PGA title in a dramatic finish in the dark in 2014.
The 29-year-old remains without a major victory since, but he believes the set-up this week should be well-suited to his game as he looks forward to his 10th appearance in the final major of the year.
"it's hard to believe this is the 10th one," said McIlroy, who plays the first two rounds alongside Tiger Woods and defending champion Justin Thomas. "I have always enjoyed PGA Championship set-ups. They seem to suit my game style pretty well, with modern layouts that reward good driving and good ball striking.
"I haven't seen much of Bellerive this week, for obvious reasons with the weather, but from what I've seen it does remind me of somewhere like Valhalla, where there's quite a lot of mounding. The bunkering is pretty good, but it's a big, big long golf course.
"I don't think The PGA of America really care whether the winning score is five under par or 20 under par. They just let the conditions dictate what happens, and I think all the players appreciate that. We all like to play golf courses that are tough but fair, and I think that the PGA present golf courses like that to us each and every year."
McIlroy has posted five top-10 finishes worldwide since winning for the first time since 2016 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March, although he has failed to lift any silverware when being in Sunday's final pairing on four occasions this year.
"I've kept giving myself chances this year, but I haven't closed out those tournaments as I would have liked," he added. "But at least I'm putting myself in position, and that's all I can do. I can just keep putting myself in position and learn from those experiences, good or bad, and try to use what I've learned and put it into practice the next time, I guess.
"So I've done well, I'm slowly getting back up the world rankings. I started this year at 11th and I'm back up to fifth. I've done a lot of good things, the only thing I haven't done is win enough.
"I played in a lot of final groups and I haven't played well enough when it's counted. So that's something that I'm just trying to go through and try to figure out what I need to do to make that little step from contending and getting into final groups to lifting trophies.
"Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't, but right now I would love to take my chance in a final group here on Sunday again."
McIlroy also insisted he was looking forward to being grouped with Woods for the first 36 holes despite the distractions that come with playing alongside the 14-time major champion.
"You certainly get thrown at the deep end straight away in a group like that," said McIlroy. "I think you just have to accept that 75 percent of the people that are out there are watching one guy in that group and that's it.
"So as long as you know that and you're going to expect a little bit of movement, and there's a lot that goes on around a group that involves Tiger, so you just have to be in the right place mentally to accept it and go with it.
"But it's going to be fun. It's nice to play in groups like that and I guess it focuses you straight away. It's going to be a big atmosphere out there, and I'm looking forward to that."
