If you have to learn how to make the best use of your flight boarding card, then one has to look towards World No. 1 golfer Rory McIlroy for inspiration.
The Irish sensation has been making the most of his flight boarding pass ahead of his season opening tournament every year and it is paying him high dividends. McIlroy has been penning down a list of targets he has to achieve at the back of the boarding pass during his flight for the season-opener.
“I write my goals down on the back of my boarding pass, put it in my wallet and I memorise them. But I don’t look at them until the end of the year,” revealed McIlroy at the official press briefing ahead of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship.
“So in my back pocket in my wallet is a boarding pass with my goals for this year. I don’t really want to share them with anyone else. They are just my little goals and I’ll try and achieve those and at the end of the year see how well I’ve done,” added McIlroy, who was pretty pleased with the way he went about his business in attaining the goals he had set last years.
“I actually didn’t achieve everything that I wanted to last year. I wanted to have six worldwide wins. I only had four but still a good year,” said McIlroy, bursting in to laughter and later went on to say that he has penned down âseven things’ for this season.
McIlroy had a brilliant 2014 during which he topped the money list on the European Tour by winning the Race to Dubai and was voted 'Player of the Year’ on both the European and US Tours. The 25-yr-old was confident that he can carry the momentum gained last year into the new season.
“Yeah, definitely look back on 2014 with a lot of pride. Over the Christmas period in Australia, I had my first chance to really look back and even watch a few of the highlights at some of the tournaments that I won,” said McIlroy, adding that, it was nice to reflect on 2014 as it has set him up nicely for another great year.
“I feel like I’m coming into this year with a nice little bit of momentum, and the game is feeling good,” added McIlroy, who lifted two Majors — the British Open and the US PGA to emerge as the sport’s dominant player in 2014.
For McIlroy, the Abu Dhabi course is not an alien terrain as this is his eighth appearance and he had come close to winning several times. Last year, he missed the title by one stroke to Spaniard Pablo Larrazabal and ended up joint runner-up with American Phil Mickelson. However, this time round, he is confident that he could get across the line.
“I’ve come close a couple of times, being on the wrong side of the rule back: Twice out of the last three years and that’s cost me. I think one of the goals this week is just to have no penalty shots when I don’t need them, and see where I end up at the end of the week,” said McIlroy, who was not very bothered about the chances that had been made to the course for the 10th anniversary.
“I know they have made a few changes to it, but it’s a golf course I’ve always felt comfortable on, and that suited me, and I’ve played well here in the past. I think this is my eighth year in a row starting the season off here so I’m pretty familiar with the place and looking forward to another strong start to the season.”
