Rory McIlroy is back on the field, in Texas, at the Shell Houston Open, to catch and surpass his friend and rival Tiger Woods at the top of the world rankings. Tiger overtook Rory just three days ago, when Woods took home, for the second consecutive year and for the eighth time in his career, the first prize at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. But now the ball returns to Rory and the appointment becomes very interesting, also because the Masters, the first Major of the year, staged from 11 to 14 April, is full of further expectations.
In Texas Rory seems confident and explains his recent golfing crisis with humility: “We are men, not machines – he admits – the pressure that comes upon you when you are number one in the world is great and I have felt it. Now I've stopped watching TV and I don't read too much what people write about me, so I focus on golf. I'm seriously working on my swing and I've already seen some results, for example at Doral, on the last day, when I shot 65 shots”. Rory promises not to let go and golf fans are grateful. In fact, it's nice to see Tiger Woods playing at the highest levels, it's exciting to find him number one in the world, but all this is even more beautiful when Rory is in top form and the battle gets serious.
The Houston course is also an excellent dress rehearsal for the Masters, as it is set up to look like Augusta: lightning-fast greens, flags close to the water, difficult rough. There are 6,2 million dollars up for grabs and last year the first prize, just over one million, was won by Hunter Mahan, the only one to have dominated this race twice in his career, ready, starting today on Sunday, to score a third victory. The field is top-level, even if many excellent names like Tiger, Justin Rose or Bubba Watson are missing.
Mahan plays with “Lefty”, that is with the left-handed Phil Mickelson, another candidate for the Masters podium, who has already worn the green jacket three times already, and with the Australian Geoff Ogilvy. Lee Westood, the Englishman who has been living in Florida for a few months and plays permanently on the PGA Tour, shares the first two days with Lous Oosthuizen and Charlie Beljan. McIlory has a young and aggressive start: in the first 36 holes, in fact, his teammates are Dustin Johnson, one of the longest players on the tour, and Keegan Bradley, always dangerous, always competitive. The departure of Brandt Snedeker, Fedex champion 2013, at the tee with Bill Haas and Steve Stricker was all stars and stripes.
The course is a par 72 almost 7000 meters long, redesigned by Rees Jones in 2005. The winner collects 500 points for the FedExCup. Players who have not yet qualified for the Masters have the final round of appeal to rack up the necessary points.
Francesco Molinari doesn't need it, whom we will meet again in Augusta with Matteo Manassero in two weeks. Francesco left the USA this weekend and opted for the Hassan II Trophy, in Agadir, Morocco, a race on the European Tour calendar. There are many Italians on the field, including the other Molinari brother, Edoardo, according to last week in Malaysia.
