Rory, Min Woo, and Cam Davis Ahead of First Round

Images courtesy of Golf Australia

Rory, Min Woo and Cam Davis Ahead of Day One

Three big stars of the game fronted the media on Wednesday ahead of the first round of the Crown Australian Open.

Rory McIlroy, answering a question about where Royal Melbourne sits compared to other courses around the globe answered by saying it’s probably not even the best course in Melbourne. In fact he rates Kingston Heath above Royal Melbourne. But ever the pragmatist he eventually turned to the merits of this week’s host course singing it’s praises. McIlroy said that “Australia has been a very big part of my golfing life and my golfing journey, going all the way back to playing the Australian Open as an amateur back in 2005 and 2006. And then I just think the quality of the golf down here, the quality of the players that have come from here ….”

Min Woo Lee was similarly complimentary of the Royal Melbourne track. Of the course he said “You can see that it's firming up just a little bit. The wind's blowing out there and it's going to be fun. I think it's going to be tricky by the afternoon and yeah, very excited. Very excited. Different golf than usual. You got to think around every shot really and make sure you don't leave it in bad spots. So you've got to be in control of the ball and I am.”

Cam Davis reflected on his performance last season on the PGA Tour. He said that he spent some time res-setting” It was me putting the clubs away for a little bit and then playing golf purely for fun for a little while and realising what are the things that I actually really enjoy about this. I mean, I got into the game not trying to make a living. I got into the game because I really enjoy playing it and I think playing rounds of golf with one club, going to the front tees and just ripping driver at all the greens and stuff, just I started getting back I think more of a reason why I play this game.” Asked about his recent time back at his home course in Sydney he said “That was a little bit more back to work…. But my week at Monash, it was good. I mean they looked after me very well. I had access to their facilities for a bit and I was able to get some good back to tournament golf sort of work. So started to learn my numbers again, started to kind of dial in my routines and all that. So that was a little bit more of a work week, but still with the underlying fun involved. I did have a few rounds at there and that was really fun.”

All the action kicks off on Thursday with expected hot conditions and high winds which is certain to make the already challenging Royal Melbourne layout even more difficult.