Rory McIlroy knows where his priority lies at the Zozo Championship @ Sherwood this week, although he could easily be distracted by an opportunity to rewrite some golf history next month.
The Northern Irishman, who is a two-time FedExCup champion, cannot be faulted if his mind wanders off-track to the Masters Tournament which takes place in three weeks’ time and offers another crack for him to complete a career grand slam which only five golfers, including this week’s defending champion Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus, have achieved.
While McIlroy is keen to don the Green Jacket at Augusta National, he is intent on keeping his focus solely on the Zozo Championship, which moved from its home base in Japan to Thousand Oaks, California due to Covid-19 and features a star-studded field including 28 of the top 30 from the final FedExCup points list last season.
“I mean, it’s four rounds, it’s an opportunity to win a PGA Tour event. That’s sort of first and foremost what my focus is. It’s been a year basically since I’ve won, I haven’t won since China (WGC-HSBC Champions) last year,” said the 31-year-old McIlroy.
” It’s a great opportunity to try to get a win and get into contention and I think that would be a big step if I were able to. I haven’t really been in contention much since coming back from the lockdown. If I could get into contention this week and have a chance to win, I think that would be great for just the overall confidence. But obviously great looking ahead a couple weeks’ time and getting in a position where you’re having to hit shots under the gun and under that pressure of trying to win a golf tournament.”
McIlroy finished eighth in his defence of the FedExCup last season which saw him winning three times during the 2018-19 season, including the 2019 Players Championship and Tour Championship. As he admitted, his form since the PGA Tour’s return in June has been patchy by his high standards, with only two top-10s to show for. Last week, he finished tied for 21st place at The CJ Cup @ Shadow Creek, a Korean-based tournament which also moved to the U.S. this year due to Covid-19.
A return to Sherwood, which is located at the base of Santa Monica mountains and whose membership includes many A-list Hollywood celebrities, brings good vibes for McIlroy which he hopes to ride to his advantage as he seeks to end his year-long title drought.
“Yeah, I’ve got some good memories here. Playing Tiger’s (Woods) event back in the day, this was the first ever competitive round I played with Tiger was here at Sherwood, which was pretty cool, so remember that,” he said. “I’ve always enjoyed Sherwood. It’s a great venue for a golf tournament. Whenever this tournament was announced that it would be coming here instead of going back to Japan, I was excited. I think a lot of the guys were looking forward to playing it.”
Woods claimed a three-stroke victory in Japan last year to equal Sam Snead’s long-standing record of 82 career win.
