RORY McILROY, the world No.1, has declared himself fit enough to defend his PGA Championship title at Whistling Straits this week.
McIlroy managed to squeeze in his third practice round on Monday before the first of two thundery storms deluged the region located about an hour’s drive north of Milwaukee.
“After playing 18 holes yesterday I got back to the house we’re renting this week and managed to watch much of Shane’s final round on TV,” said McIlroy.
“It was great and once he got into the lead, and then hit a couple of wonder shots, that shot on 10 which was incredible, and he held some big par putts.
“He held a great putt on 14, and he held a great one on 17, so I texted him last night and said it was a pretty ballsy victory.”
McIlroy again showed no signs of favouring his left leg and now has played eight rounds of golf since the most talked-about footy injury in recent months.
“I can go at it hard as I like and the ankle actually feels better when I go at it as hard as I want, because my left foot sort of spins out the way whenever I hit the driver anyway,” he said.
“So it’s more if my left foot was to stay completely flat, like if it was going to roll onto the left side like a lot of guys do, then I would obviously probably create a few problems and because mine sort of spins out of the way, it takes a lot of pressure off it.
“And as a result of all these practice rounds my game feels good. I was anticipating feeling a bit rusty and a bit out of sorts for the first couple of weeks. I started hitting balls on the 28th of July, what’s that, a week and a half, two weeks, and it feels good.
“I’ve played quite a lot of golf since starting to hit balls, and it feels good. I’m finding the middle of the clubface. I think the one thing for me was if my short game was sharp but I’ve been chipping and putting since basically this happened. I was putting when I had the [support] boot on. I’ve kept that part of the game sharp, so everything feels pretty good.”
McIlroy has a two further days to sharpen his game ahead of teeing up on Thursday and revealed his desire to keep rehabilitation work in Portugal with trainer, Steve McGregor, secret – despite an eagerness to defend last week’s WGC event in Ohio.
“The way I was feeling in Portugal the last couple of weeks, I thought because I wanted to play four rounds in a row and I thought the Bridgestone could be a good way to do that,” he said.
“But then Steve wanted to do it behind closed doors, and do it without anyone really knowing what was going on, so it was sort of like a fitness test and I passed that one.
“So this week I felt like it was the right time to come [back], regardless of whether it was this week. No matter what week it was I was ready to go, whether it was this week or whether it was some other tournament.
“It wasn’t like I was trying to get back for this. It just so happened that I feel good enough to go.”
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