McIlroy switches putting grip after missed cut last week

Doral hasn’t been overly kind to any of them.

Day reached No. 1 in the world late previous year during a run in which he won four times in six starts, including a record score to par at the PGA Championship.

The WGC-Cadillac Championship is a limited-field event with no cut, so everyone will play all four days.

Golf fans will be treated to the rare sight of the game’s top three players grouped together at this week’s WGC-Cadillac Championship in Miami, but world number one Jordan Spieth is not buying into any buzz over the “Big Three”.

“Everyone’s fighting for the same prize”, Spieth said.

“I am just getting going now”, he said.

McIlroy welcomed the “kick in the backside” his missed cut in the Honda Classic provided 12 months ago, but still went on to hit the headlines for the wrong reasons at Doral after throwing his three-iron into a lake during the second round. This week, the Cadillac Championship is the biggest tournament of the year to date and the first WGC event of the year.

“It will be good out there, hopefully a little bit of buzz around that group”.

Buzz won’t be in short supply this week. “That’s that killer instinct that I need to get back like I had at the second half of last year, get back and take it into this year and go through with it”.

“It’s one of the golf tournaments you don’t really want to miss”, he said. I won here last year, but since last year we’ve played a lot of tournaments. It’s been a year but it definitely feels good. “And I’ve putted a lot just with my left hand”.

The Blue Monster rewarded Johnson’s patience past year and plenty of players were talking about taking a similar approach this week.

Asked if he putts poorly in Thursday’s opening round whether he might be tempted to go back to the conventional way, McIlroy said he has no plans to abandon it quickly. You’ll remember past year, Rory McIlory enjoyed this hole so much he made a donation. It didn’t matter how bad it was; if it was a course that he did not like, he was just going to flat-out execute you.

That doesn’t mean McIlroy, Day, Spieth or any other top player in this week’s field doesn’t want to peak this week; it just means they really want to peak five weeks from now, after making that drive down Magnolia Lane. He wound up tied for 34th.

“I will try and gain some momentum back off of Los Angeles, that was a bummer”, said the 22-year-old Spieth. You make 6s, 7s and I think I’ve even made an 8 here on a par 4 before. But that’s something I haven’t done in my two trips here. The wind-affected Bermuda course will challenge the top golfers in the world with Greens In Regulation among the key stats to keep an eye on. He told me it [joining the golf team at Jacksonville University] wasn’t going to be glamorous, but if I worked hard I would get better.