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Rory McIlroy believes he is moving in the right direction as he looks to continue his superb recent record in the Arnold Palmer Invitational.<\/p>\nRory McIlroy believes he is moving in the right direction as he looks to continue his superb recent record in the Arnold Palmer Invitational.<\/p>\n
McIlroy won the title at Bay Hill in 2018 and has finished no worse than tied sixth in each of the last four years, although he carded a closing 76 in 2020 when trailing eventual champion Tyrrell Hatton by two shots after 54 holes.<\/p>\n
The 31-year-old missed his first cut since the 2019 Open Championship in the Genesis Invitational a fortnight ago, but bounced back to finish in a tie for sixth in last week\u2019s WGC-Workday Championship.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m feeling a little better about it,\u201d McIlroy said when asked about the state of his game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t have a great week at Riviera a couple weeks ago, but then had a bit of a better week last week at The Concession. Still trying to iron out a couple of things that I feel like I can do better.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I saw some positive signs last week and coming back to a course where you\u2019ve had some good memories that always helps too when you sort of feel a little bit better about yourself.<\/p>\n
\u201cI finished decent last week and hopefully can build on that this week.<\/p>\n
\u201cI first played this event back in 2015, which I probably should have played it sooner, but I just never was able to get the chance. So I said in 2015 when I first played that I\u2019ll try to never miss it again and I\u2019ve kept my word up until this point.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a wonderful course for me, I played well here in the past, it\u2019s nice to be a past champion and looking forward to another great week here in Orlando.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hatton\u2019s victory last year made it five straight victories for non-American players at Bay Hill after Jason Day (2016), Marc Leishman (2017), McIlroy (2018) and Francesco Molinari (2019).<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think this course suits international (players) more than anyone else,\u201d added McIlroy, who will partner Ryder Cup team-mates Hatton and Molinari in the first two rounds.<\/p>\n
\u201cI honestly just think that more internationals play in this event than most other PGA TOUR events. These things go in cycles and I wouldn\u2019t look too much into it, but it is interesting that a lot of internationals have won here the last few years.\u201d<\/p>\n