Abu Dhabi Golf Championship 2013: Rory McIlroy falls short on first round following £78m golf club deal I just felt like I wasn't swinging that well. For the most part I was very happy with everything. The longest stick and shortest stick were the exceptions. "It's probably the driver and the putter that require the biggest adjustment as you need to drive it in the fairway around here to make a score," he said. It was also more about being committed to it and I feel that I can release this driver a lot more and that's a plus. McIlroy certainly released his drive on the third (his 12th) - into a tree and from there out of bounds. This was the second six he recorded on a par four, his first on the 15th (his sixth) also the result of a wayward drive. In all, McIlroy hit only five fairways. That is not good for one of the best drivers the game has ever seen. His Nike VR-1 is red and the panic merchants will already be spotting danger with The Masters three months away. McIlroy is not anxious. "It's still a learning process," he said. But I've got here and then four weeks off [before he returns at the WGC Matchplay] to get everything ready for the States. "Here" might only consist of 18 more holes. McIlroy is outside the top 80, eight shots behind the leaders, Justin Rose and Jamie Donaldson. By Friday night, he could be on his way to Melbourne to watch his girlfriend, Caroline Wozniacki, in the Australian Open. But do not discount McIlroy's chances here. The last time he shot a 75 was in the USPGA Championship - he won it by eight shots. The 23 year-old is three behind his playing partner Tiger Woods, who shot a level-par 72. The world No2 awoke to find his name in the National Enquirer. The magazine claimed that Woods had asked his ex-wife Elin Nordegren to remarry him, proposing on Christmas Day. "I'm not going to comment on my private life," he said. He could not avoid commenting on his tee shot on the first (his 10th). It travelled no further than 120 yards, coming up short of the fairway. With children close by, Woods reeled off three profanities. He had turned in a two under, but bogeyed the next two and finished off with a three-putt. "My game plan was three-iron or five-wood and then I changed," Woods said, explaining the drive. I was not committed to the shot - I should have backed off. I had a strategy, I didn't keep to it and paid the price. But it's tough out there. Every hole is crosswind and it was a day to survive - you've really got to control your ball. The rough's up and it's imperative to keep the ball in the fairway. Donaldson will make his Masters debut in April courtesy of his maiden win - at the 255th attempt - at last year's Irish Open. That propelled the Welshman into the world's top 50 and if the winds remain he could emulate his great friend Robert Rock, who humbled Woods here at the Abu Dhabi Golf Club last year. But Justin Rose is a player at the top of his form. When Rose was last in the desert, at the Dubai World Championship in November, he shot a final-round 62 to push McIlroy to within a shot. He returned to the UAE delighted that the spotlight was focused purely on McIlroy and Woods and was even more delighted to discover Martin Kaymer, and not he, would complete the marquee three-ball (in the event, the German outscored them both with a 71). "That was a good thing," Rose said. This was the perfect start to 2013; to get straight on to the leaderboard and test everything that I have been working on. Rose feels this could be his year and on the evidence of this 67, compiled in the worst of the winds, that confidence is anything but misplaced. "I'm very happy with my skillset and feel I can close the gap [with McIlroy in the rankings] or make it disappear with some hard work," he said. I'm excited about the fact I'm close to the top end of the game and I still feel I have more to give. This is Rose's first appearance in this event and when he bogeyed the opening hole his unfamiliarity seemed obvious. But he birdied the next and five more thereafter. There was a 60-footer on the fifth and a holed bunker shot on the ninth. "They were the moments which separated me today," he said. No one else in the afternoon made any sort of run at all. So I can feel very good about that score.