McIlroy the Hostest with Mostest

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Rory McIlroy put himself in an excellent position heading into the weekend at the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open Hosted by the Rory Foundation and then declared he was confident he could go on to win his home event.

The Northern Irishman is playing host to the tournament for the second consecutive season but had missed the cut three years in a row before rounds of 67-70 saw him make a good start at the K Club.

His previous best finish was seventh in 2008 and the four-time Major Championship winner said before the start this week and after the first round how eager he was to at last taste victory on home soil.

To do that he must overcome an elite field, with Masters Tournament champion Danny Willett and three-time European tour winner Marc Warren both a shot ahead of him at eight under heading into the weekend.

But after striking the ball beautifully over days one and two, McIlroy believes if he can cut out the mistakes, he will be right in the mix come Sunday afternoon.

"I'm making enough birdies," he said. "I think I made six birdies yesterday. I made six birdies today. So the birdies are there. I just need to limit the mistakes. Four bogeys today, a couple of really soft bogeys as well.

"I know that I'm hitting enough good shots and I'm holing enough putts. If I can live with the mistakes, I feel like I'll be right there.

"Obviously I haven't made the cut here for a while, and to be in for the weekend and play a solid two rounds of golf, I'm right there in the mix. I'm excited for the weekend."

McIlroy came into the second round two shots behind Willett and while he twice reined him in, he twice fell two shots behind again with a closing birdie from 20 feet on the ninth - his last - cutting the gap to one.

"I was getting quite frustrated there," he added. "Especially the end of the round, I felt I was giving myself chances and wasn't converting, and any time I did make a mistake, I wasn't saving par.

"To hole that birdie putt on the last, it was nice. It gives me a little bit of momentum going into the weekend, and I'll need it."

Willett is playing his first European Tour event since his maiden Major triumph at Augusta and McIlroy is delighted to have the man he beat to the Race to Dubai title last term in contention.

"I don't think anyone was happier than me last night because of what Danny shot, and then obviously me being up there," he said. "Both up there for the weekend, the Masters Champion and myself, it's a good leaderboard.

"It's great to see Danny up there, as well. I was very pleased that he committed to come and play here."

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McIlroy Chasing Straffan Silverware

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Rory McIlroy is confident he can improve on his poor record in the Irish Open this week, despite taking on the duties of tournament host for the second year.

McIlroy has missed the cut in his home event for the last three years and has recorded just two top-10 finishes in nine attempts, with his best result a seventh place in his first full year as a professional in 2008.

But, despite being frustrated at failing to turn good performances into a victory so far in 2016, the 27-year-old believes his game is in good enough shape to contend for the title at The K Club, where he watched the final day of the 2006 Ryder Cup as a 17-year-old spectator.

“The Irish Open always was, but even more so now, has become one of the most important weeks of the year for me, obviously for a couple of different reasons,” said the four-time major winner.

“We’re here to try and raise as much money as we possibly can for three local charities in the Dublin area, but also it’s a tournament that I desperately would love to win one day.

“My performances in this event, obviously over the past three years, but going beyond that, haven’t been what I would want. I want to really change that this week with a good performance and I feel like my game is in good enough shape to do that.

“I’m coming off a couple of decent weeks in the States where I felt like I played better than what the results suggested, so I’m looking forward to the week. The K Club here is a golf course where I feel like I can do well on. It sets up well for me.

“It would be huge (to win). I think anyone that plays professional golf, they dream of winning their home open. You don’t get very many opportunities to do it, so it would be very special. It’s definitely one tournament that is missing from my CV that I would love to add.”

Asked if he could pinpoint why he had not performed well in Ireland, McIlroy added: “No, not really. I think maybe the pressure of playing at home; we don’t get to play at home very often and maybe trying a bit too hard or putting a bit too much pressure on myself.

“There were obviously reasons I wanted to get involved in this tournament and one of those reasons was because I wanted to be here. I wanted to contribute something, where coming to the Irish Open was becoming more of a burden instead of being something that I relished and something that I enjoyed.

“So being able to get involved and not just play for myself, but play for other people and help other people out, I enjoy that part of it. I want to come here. I want to help out. I want to try to make this one of the best tournaments in the world and I feel like we’ve made a few good strides towards doing that.”

McIlroy believes he learnt a lot from acting as tournament host last year, when he slumped to an opening round of 80 and missed the cut at Royal County Down, but was on hand to present the trophy to eventual champion Soren Kjeldsen.

“I think there was times where I spread myself a little bit too thin last year with a lot of commitments and we’ve tried to scale that back a little bit this year,” he added.

“Last night with the Q&A (with Sir Alex Ferguson) was one of the biggest things I had to do, but once the tournament starts I really don’t have many other commitments, so I’m trying to really focus on the tournament when we get going.”

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