Rory McIlroy, impressed with Tiger’s new swing, plans to watch Woods’ comeback

Rory McIlroy is as curious as the rest of the golf world about how Tiger Woods will perform this week at Isleworth.

The world No. 1 recently teed it up with the formerly top-ranked Woods and came away enthused by how his Nike teammate swung the club. McIlroy told the Irish Independent Wednesday that he would likely tune in to follow the progress of Woods at the Hero World Challenge, his first competitive start since August.

“From what I’ve read and listened to, he’s sort of going back through old swings trying to find something that’ll work going forward,” McIlroy said. “I played golf with Tiger five weeks ago and he looked really good to me. It’ll be interesting to see how he does this week. I’m sure I’ll be catching a lot of the coverage.”

All eyes are on Woods, who is not only returning to golf on Thursday after a long layoff that started with a missed cut at the PGA Championship, but playing for the first time with new consultant Chris Como in his entourage -- Tiger’s fourth high-profile swing advisor since he turned professional. As Woods adds a fifth new swing to his repertoire, McIlroy opined how thankful he was for the stability in his motion and his on-course team.

“I hope I don’t have to [make such drastic changes], fingers crossed, touch wood,” said McIlroy, who has worked with coach Michael Bannon since childhood. “I guess it’s a swing that’s going to do me for life. . . hopefully.”

McIlroy, coming off a banner 2014 season in which he added two more major titles to the two he had, suggested that a training regime that has the formerly slightly pudgy lad as buff and bulked up as Woods has ever been should hold him in good stead going forward.

Of course, Woods, who is returning from the most recent of a series of injuries throughout his career -- a bad back that required surgery in March -- probably said the same thing when he was McIlroy’s age. Some 14 years later, Woods is working on yet another swing modification, with yet another set of eyes offering guidance, some of the changes necessitated by knee and back problems.

“I was happy with the direction I was going. I had won eight times in two years. Things were progressing in the right direction,” Woods told reporters on Tuesday about his work with ex-swing guru, Sean Foley, who left Team Tiger in August. “But unfortunately physically, I was getting damaged doing it.”

So far, so good for McIlroy.

“There’s going to be a point, I suppose, some years down the line where I’m going to have to make a slight change,” he said, “but it’s stayed very similar for this time, so I don’t envisage having to change it too much in the future.”