UNIVERSITY PLACE, Wash. -- Rory McIlroy scoffed when told weeks ago that Mike Davis, executive director of the United States Golf Association, declared that nobody would win the U.S. Open at Chambers Bay without playing the course several times in advance.
"What's Mike Davis' handicap?" quipped the world's No. 1-ranked player.
McIlroy might not have appreciated the suggestion, but he has nonetheless taken it to heart. He's been in the Pacific Northwest since Friday night, played extensive practice rounds over the weekend, and sounded confident about his chances in the 115th U.S. Open, which begins Thursday.
"I really didn't know what to expect when I got here," McIlroy said. "It's a pure links golf course. Every part of this golf course is fescue. It's really like playing an Open Championship in the United States. That's what it's going to be like this week, apart from the fact that it's about 20 degrees warmer.
"I really like the golf course. I think it sets up well for my game. You've got to be aggressive off the tee. You've got to hit driver. I think it's a course where you're going to see a lot of guys hit fairways and hit greens. But when you hit greens, you can still be 50, 60 feet away from the pin. So if you can drive the ball well and your pace putting and long putting is sharp, I think they're going to be two really key things this week to be successful."
McIlroy, who won last year's Open Championship -- always played on a links -- at Royal Liverpool, is coming off missed cuts in his last two starts: the BMW PGA Championship and Irish Open, played at Royal County Down in his native Northern Ireland.
The would normally be a bad sign, but those events were on the back end of a five-week stretch which saw him win the WGC-Match Play Championship, tie for eighth at the Players Championship and then win the Wells Fargo Championship. He has won three times worldwide in 2015.
"I think it was my mind had enough golf rather than my body," he said. "I didn't -- I sort of had to get back, especially after playing at County Down, just to get back to playing my normal game, hitting shots the way I like to see them, swinging the way I want to swing. Not really trying to play these little half shots or trying to play the ball along the ground.
"Even this week I was expecting to have to play the ball along the ground more. But looking at all these elevated greens and looking at the way this course sets up, you really -- and especially with the way that the weather conditions are going to be, you're not going to have to do that too much because the greens are so firm.
"Anyone that can get elevation on their iron shots and get a little spin on the ball that's the way you're going to get it close to these pins. All I tried to do last week was just get back to playing my normal game, and I think that's the way I'm going to do well this week."
McIlroy said he spent a week in Europe after the Irish Open, taking a tourist visit to London before returning to Florida last week to practice.
He attended a media day for the PGA Championship on Friday at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin before heading to Chambers Bay.
McIlroy compared Chambers Bay to Muirfield in Scotland, where Phil Mickelson won the 2013 Open. That's also where McIlroy missed the cut amid a disappointing season.
"I'm a completely different player. I'm in a completely different place," McIlroy said when asked if there was any concern about the venues being similar. "No, I had no control of my golf game at that point in time, and I feel like I'm pretty much in full control of it at the minute. I can tell you, no, a repeat of that is definitely not going to happen."
McIlroy begins play Thursday at 11:28 a.m. ET with defending U.S. Open champion Martin Kaymer and U.S. Amateur champion Gunn Yang.
