Rory McIlroy made his PGA Tour return on Thursday with an encouraging round of 67 at the Farmers Insurance Open yesterday, and the Irishman thinks it could be down in part to Conor McGregor.
The Down native hit seven birdies in San Diego in his first outing since November, and reckons several weeks of practice and preparation combined with a 'pit-stop' in Las Vegas was the winning formula.
The world number two stopped at the T-Mobile Arena over the weekend on his way to California to watch Conor McGregor's 40 second dismantling of Donald 'Cowboy' Cerrone in his UFC return.
And after watching McGregor's composed destruction of the American, all the pieces came together for McIlroy on the fairways in his first event of 2020.
"I've had a couple of good weeks in Florida to practice and prepare, and I made a little pit stop in Vegas on my way here to watch the Conor McGregor fight at the weekend," McIlroy told Sky Sports.
"I had some time on Sunday to try to dial in with the new equipment, which has been good, and the weather has been perfect here and great for getting some practice in.
"I don't want to call this a practice week, but I'm having four competitive rounds to see where my game is on a couple of very good golf courses."
Despite the positive start, the 30-year-old has plenty to brush up on heading into the weekend - where he lies tied for third and just one shot off the lead at five under-par.
"A 67 is a nice start. I drove the ball really well, and if I can drive it like that for the rest of this week, and the rest of this year, then I'll be pretty happy
"My iron play was okay, I hit a couple of loose ones, but my wedge play was nice although I hit a couple of clunky chip shots, one on each nine. But apart from that it was good. I putted okay and I holed out well, maybe my speed on the greens was not quite what I wanted it to be.
"But overall, for my first round back this year, it was pretty good".
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