Rory McIlroy has played well only one of his previous tournaments – a T7 at this past week’s FedEx St. Jude Classic. But the on-again, off-again World No. 1 is promising to come out swinging – his driver – at this week’s U.S. Open at The Olympic Club in San Francisco.
Rory McIlroy
“I reckon I’m going to use any driver eight or nine times on this course,” said the defending U.S. Open champion. “I’m coming in with the mindset that I’m going to attack the golf course and play aggressively when I can. Obviously you have to be smart, but you’ve got to take your chances around here. And this golf course gives you a few opportunities where you can make birdies. There are a few holes where you just have to settle for a par and be very happy with that.”
One of the reasons McIlroy said he expects he can be aggressive is because Olympic’s rough isn’t as high as at previous venues. Given the course’s constant moistness and narrow fairways, it doesn’t need to be.
“But there are holes, for example No. 18, where the rough on the left of that fairway, you just can’t go in it. It’s brutal. But if you miss it on other parts of the course you can actually get a decent lie and you can get a fairly simple shot to the green. So really you just need to know your way around the golf course and know where you can miss it.”
