Rory McIlroy reveals the small but crucial change he’s made as he targets a return to winning ways

The 28-year-old gets his season underway on Thursday.

Rory McIlroy is feeling good. After a frustrating 2017 campaign, during which the four-time major champion was repeatedly irritated by a rib injury, he is refreshed and ready to go again. After a three month break from competitive golf, McIlroy returns to action at this week's Abu Dhabi Golf Championship. The Northern Irishman says he is feeling better, both physically and mentally, as he prepares to take on a star-studded field including world number one Dustin Johnson, Tommy Fleetwood and Justin Rose. Last year, McIlroy was forced to withdraw from this event due to a stress fracture to his rib. Although it wasn't initially treated as a serious setback, it went on interrupt much of his campaign. Free from the pain now, though, the Holywood native feels as though he is in a position to start winning tournaments again. McIlroy's last victory came 16 months ago and he starts this week outside the top ten in the world rankings for the first time since January 2011. However, McIlroy's slide down the charts last season was a by-product of not winning and not winning was a by-product of his curtailed practice routines in the build-up to tournaments. https://twitter.com/EuropeanTour/status/953525187366047750 He explained this week that his rib injury prevented him from completing full practice programmes on the week of tournaments. With that no longer a problem, he revealed that his golfing New Year's resolution was getting to tournaments earlier to help with his pre-tournament preparation. It's a simple technique that may well prove wonderfully effective.

"I didn't really practise much between tournaments last year because I couldn't," he added. "I was just trying to rest and trying to keep myself going, so that gets you mentally because every time you turn up at an event, you don't feel prepared. "You don't feel like you've done enough work to be ready and then even if you do get yourself in contention, almost feel a bit guilty that you're there because you haven't done the work. "So mentally, I just wasn't in a great place, and that was because of where I was physically. So that's been really nice now to be unrestricted in practice and do what I've needed to do and feel like I've put the body of work in so that when I go to tournaments, I feel prepared and I feel ready and I feel ready to challenge.

https://twitter.com/NoLayingUp/status/953303765414588416 McIlroy is renowned for excelling in the Middle East. He has won four times in Dubai (the Dubai Desert Classic and the DP World Tour Championship two times each) but has somehow never cracked the winners' enclosure in Abu Dhabi, losing by a single shot on three separate occasions. However, while it's similar surroundings on a golf course that suits impeccable ball striking and power off the tee, clinching a maiden title here will be no mean feat up against such a stellar cast. Johnson, who finished runner-up last year, has already won on the PGA Tour this season, romping to success at the Tournament of Champions in Hawaii by eight strokes a fortnight ago. Justin Rose, who finished last season playing the golf of his life in capturing the WGC - HSBC Champions and Turkish Airlines Open in successive weeks. The Englishman may have come up agonisingly short in his bid to take the Race to Dubai title away from Fleetwood, but his comfortable win in Indonesia suggests that it's done little to diminish his appetite. With the mercurial Tyrrell Hatton, Henrik Stenson and Paul Casey also playing this week, it's a stacked field and one that will make McIlroy's path to victory a difficult one. Then again, underestimating him when he's fully fit and focused is a risky game indeed.