Published Monday, 05 December 2011
"To be able to win golf tournaments when you're not playing your best is what the likes of Tiger did week in and week out when he was winning seven, eight, nine tournaments a year," the 22-year-old said, fresh from his win at the Hong Kong Open.
"That's something you're going to have to do if you want to be a great player. I feel as if I'm learning to do that and this is a great win."
After shooting an opening 64, the Holywood star struggled through the next two rounds before returning to form on the final day to finish 12 under par and win by two shots over Gregory Havret.
"To come from behind and to draw level after nine holes and then to play very solid golf on the back nine and be able to close it out, it's something I probably haven't done before," McIlroy said.
"It would be nice to walk up the last with a four-shot lead every time, but that's just not going to happen. It was nice to finish it off like this."
The victory keeps McIlroy's hopes of pipping Luke Donald to the Race to Dubai title alive.
But with a hectic schedule of late - taking in the Korean Open, the China Golf Challenge that saw him play seven courses in seven days, the Grand Slam of Golf in Bermuda, the Shanghai Masters, the World Cup on Hainan Island and then Hong Kong - McIlroy says he'll definitely be scaling back on his commitments next year.
"You definitely won't see me go on a stretch like I have done this year," he said.
"That was me just wanting to play, just saying: 'You know what, last part of the year I'm going to go and I'm going to play' - that's what I wanted to do," he said.
"So there's no one really to blame but myself in that regard and yeah, I'd love to come back to Hong Kong. This is one of my favourite tournaments of the year and I'll do all that I can to come back.
"It's a very nice complaint to have, but it's been a lot of travelling.
"If I could do it again any differently, I would. I'd take a few more breaks in this stretch and maybe not exert myself as much as I have."