McIlroy seeks matchplay improvement

Following his first round escape, Rory McIlroy will be hoping for a big improvement when he takes on Oliver Wilson in the WGC Accenture Match Play Championship in Tucson today.

The world No 8 was not at all happy with his form despite coming back from four down after six holes to be American Kevin Na one up.

He said: “I definitely didn’t make it very easy for myself today. I got off to a very slow start, and Kevin got off to a very good start. Four down through 6, so it wasn’t looking too good.

“I just hung in there and played some good golf around the turn. I think I hit a really good drive on 15, which after missing the putt on the previous hole to get back to 1-down.

“And then to go square through 16, I knew I was in a pretty good position. And I think I hung in well and had a great drive on the last, which I think put him under a little bit of pressure. And he hit a bit of a wayward one.

“I was pretty fortunate to get through today. I’ll need to play a lot better if I want to progress into the latter stages of the tournament.”

Wilson beat his Ryder Cup team mate Miguel Angel Jimenez 3 and 2 and McIlroy knows he won’t have an easy ride into a possible third round clash with Robert Allenby or Luke Donald.

“I’m looking forward to it. Ollie is a great competitor, Ryder Cup player, has gained a lot of experience through that. He’s going to be a very tough opponent.

“So I’ll have to play a little better than what I did today to get through it. And if I can just get off - if we can get off to a better start than we did today, then hopefully that should be the key.

“I’m looking forward to it. There will probably be a few more words spoken out there tomorrow than there was today.”