Rory McIlroy to take aspects of Tiger Woods' game to improve in 2022

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Rory McIlroy made it something of a ritual to write his goals for the season on the back of his boarding pass on the flight to the Middle East for his first tournament of the year.

Gone, though, are the days when he might jot down the name and number of tournaments he wanted to win.

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For McIlroy, it’s now about smaller objectives that are more in his control. And to see the bigger picture, he’s used the player he has called his hero growing up, Tiger Woods, as a benchmark.

"Not saying that my game compares to his in any way," McIlroy said Wednesday of Woods, who he now regards as a close friend, "but there are certainly aspects of what he did so well in the past that I would obviously love to put into my game."

To that end, McIlroy thinks he needs to be "more of a measured and a controlled golfer."

So, heading into his opening event of 2022 at the Abu Dhabi Championship starting Thursday, expect to see the four-time major champion be less aggressive off the tee, even if that potentially robs him of one of his best attributes — his driving distance.

"I’ll certainly pick and choose my spots where I can take advantage of the driver and hit it, but the best player of the last 30 years, Tiger, he picked and chose where he hit driver, and he played a very, very controlled game," McIlroy said. "It didn’t work out too badly for him."

McIlroy had the second longest average drive on the PGA Tour in 2021 — behind Bryson DeChambeau — but was below the average for fairways hit, tied in 145th place out of about 200 players.

His driving will certainly be tested at the Yas Links this week, with the fairways