'The Dog Was Out Of The Bag, Having A Sleep In The Locker' - Rory McIlroy Explains Why He Played Without A Driver In Delhi

His incredible ability off the tee has long been Rory McIlroy's greatest golfing strength, but the big dog was not even in the bag as he played the opening round of the DP World India Championship without a driver.

The Grand Slam winner has never before competed without his trusty driver in the bag, with modern golf more and more about distance and brute force rather than finesse and feel.

But Delhi Golf Club is a different story, with tight, narrow fairways and punishing rough, the fairway is the only place to be.

McIlroy had joked before the tournament that the next time he'd be hitting a driver would be in Abu Dhabi, and he was true to his word on Thursday as he played without his major weapon in his arsenal.

And it enabled McIlroy to show his ball striking ability as he picked up six birdies against three bogeys in his three-under round of 69.

"The dog was out of the bag, having a sleep in the locker," McIlroy joked in his post-round interview with the DP World Tour.

"I was thinking about it last night before I went to bed, it was just, like, sometimes if I'm really conservative off a par-five tee I might need a 5-wood into the green, but I'm never going to hit driver.

"So I just thought I've got a 2-iron, 3-iron, 4-iron, all the way through and then I've got a 5-wood in case I need to hit it on an approach shot on a par five, but I just dont see any hole out there that you need to get it more than 260, 270 off the tee."

McIlroy says the course in Delhi means finding fairways is crucial, as the rough is what many would call 'proper rough' with almost no spin being generated from it.

“You just have to get the ball in the fairway,” McIlroy added. “The rough is unpredictable. You get a lot of fliers like I did the last two there.

“Maybe being a little bit less aggressive with approach shots and getting it on the right side of the pin.

“The greens are so grainy that uphill putts are very slow, but then if you get it above the hole, the downhill putts with the downgrain get very, very quick, so leaving yourself below the hole is pretty important, as well.”

Overall, McIlroy said that with some tricky pin placements also in operation, Delhi Golf Club proved to be a tough test for his first competitive round in India.

“It's pretty tricky,” said McIlroy. “You're just really trying to be as conservative as possible off the tee and then trying to pick off birdies on the par fives and maybe pick up a couple more.

"It's a tricky golf course.

"I thought some of the hole locations early on were really tricky. The course definitely played a little tougher than I expected it to be."