Rory McIlroy licking his lips at chance to blast driver all over Harding Park and win his third PGA Championship

RORY McILROY believes he can finally cop another Major this week — because USPGA organisers have taken the handcuffs off him.

The Northern Irishman, 31, reckons he and the rest of the game’s big hitters have suffered because everyone has become so obsessed with trying to rein them in.

But he has always rated the USPGA as his best chance of adding to his four Majors.

He has already won the title twice and said the Harding Park course in San Francisco offers him a great chance to end his six-year wait to add to his tally.

The world No 3 said: “I’ve always liked how USPGA Championship set-ups have been for me. They’re fair.

“It’s not as if they’ve changed too much.

“You look down a fairway at these championships and it’s the same width the whole way to the green.

“A lot of courses, they try to pinch it in at 320 and try to handcuff the longer hitters, whereas here the course just lets you play, which I like.

“Length is certainly an advantage here. It’s a long golf course anyway.

“It’s playing even longer because of the conditions. The temperatures are barely going to get into the 60s.

“But you’ve got to drive it straight as well as long. I’ve had some pretty bad lies in the rough over the last few days.

“It’s not a guarantee that you can get to the green if you just wheel it around.

“You still have to hit fairways. I think there’s only one or two par fours where you’re not going to hit driver.

“Most of the time you are trying to get it down there as far as you can, which I think plays to one of my strengths.”

McIlroy is also encouraged by the fact he won seven straight matches to capture the World Match Play title the last time this course hosted a big event five years ago.

He said: “If I remember anything about that week it’s that I played well when I needed to and hit good shots at the right times.

“Yeah, it’s nice to have some good memories around a golf course that you’re playing a Major on. It’s nice to be able to recall some of the shots you’ve hit.

McIlroy tees it up with Tiger Woods and new world No 1 Justin Thomas at 4.33pm British time today.

And he insisted he is not getting too worked up about the fact that he has drawn a blank in the Majors since his victory in the 2014 USPGA at Valhalla.

He added: “It doesn’t keep me up at night and I don’t think about it every day.

“But when I play these Major championships, it’s something that I’m obviously reminded of.

“Yeah, look, I would have liked to have won a couple more Majors in that time frame and I feel like I’ve had a couple of decent chances to do so. I just haven’t got the job done.

“But the good thing is we have at least three opportunities this year and then hopefully if things normalise going forward, four opportunities next year.

“So we’re playing seven Major championships in the next 12 months basically. I’ve got plenty of opportunities coming my way.”