McIlroy: I’m not more talented than Tiger

Dubai Luke Donald was quoted out of context by the world’s press when he said Rory McIlroy was more talented than Tiger Woods - and that’s according to the humble and ever so slightly embarrassed McIlroy himself.

Speaking before he teed off at the Dubai World Championships on Wednesday, Donald, who must finish ninth to prevent a winning McIlroy from stealing the Race to Dubai, said: “Rory has the most talent that I’ve ever played with. He’s young and he’s got a great future ahead of him and I see him winning lots of tournaments and lots of majors. I’m not surprised by the year he’s had. He probably has not won as much as he thought, but he’s got time for that.”

Asked if US Open winner McIlroy was more talented than Tiger, double merit chasing Donald reiterated: “I believe so, yeah, just in pure talent. I know Tiger is very, very close and obviously I think Tiger’s work ethic has always been tremendous, and his mindset as well.

“I think his mindset is what separated himself from the field when he was really at the top of the game. But in terms of talent, I think Rory has more talent – [for him] the sky is the limit.”

But McIlroy has since spoken to play down Donald’s evaluation of his play: “Look, it’s one thing to have talent, but it’s another to actually have the capability of turning that into something productive.

“I think what Luke was saying was maybe golf comes as easy to me as it does for Tiger. Tiger’s won 90 or whatever tournaments worldwide and 14 majors and that’s definitely more of a talent than five wins and whatever it is.

“Yeah, there are different types of talent. You could say some of Luke’s short game shots out there were unbelievable. He’s definitely got more talent than me around the greens. There are different types of talent. I think what he said was maybe taken a little bit out of context.”