Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland has never played in the Northern Trust Open at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, but he said in a radio interview in Ireland that will change this season.
McIlroy said he will tee it up at “Hogan’s Alley” in the Los Angeles-area event on the PGA Tour on Feb. 18-21.
“I’ve added an extra event in the States just because I want to go play the golf course,” McIlroy said on the “Off the Bell” radio program. “I’ve heard Riviera is a great course and I want to go play there in L.A., and I think it’ll be a good course for me.”
The 26-year-old McIlroy, who has slipped to No. 3 in the World Golf Rankings behind top-ranked Jordan Spieth and Jason Day of Australia, claimed his first victory in California last May when he captured the WGC-Cadillac Match Play Championship at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco.
Playing at Riviera is part of McIlroy’s plan to regain the No. 1 world ranking before to tries to complete the Career Grand Slam in the Masters.
His 2016 campaign will start with two events on the Middle East Swing of the European Tour, the Abu Dhabi Championship and the Omega Dubai Desert Classic, where he will be the defending champion.
Then Rory will fly to Los Angeles for the Northern Trust, before playing in the Honda Classic at PGA National, the WGC-Cadillac Championship at Doral, the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill and defending his title in what is now the WGC-Dell Match Play Championship at Austin Country Club in Austin, Texas.
“If I can get off to a good start next year, I can get back to No. 1 going into the Masters,” said McIlroy, who finished in a career-high fourth last year at Augusta. … “I need to feel I’m right in the middle of the season at Augusta.
“Over the last couple of years, I’ve played pretty well at Augusta, but I’ve got off to a little bit of a slow start each time. Whether that was because I was a little bit under-golfed, that definitely won’t be the case in 2016.
McIlroy also confirmed in a Facebook video that he will return to the Memorial Tournament in June following a one-year absence, after playing in Jack Nicklaus’ tournament for five straight years.
