{{ubiquityData.prevArticle.description}}
{{ubiquityData.nextArticle.description}}
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA | It was not a complicated question – six simple words – but Rory McIlroy fielded it as though he’d been asked the meaning of life.
“What are you most frustrated with?”
That McIlroy was frustrated was not in question. Five days earlier he lamented the lack of “spark” in his game at Bay Hill. He certainly hadn’t found the ignition at TPC Sawgrass, where he returned to the site of golf’s COVID-19 shutdown as still reigning Players champion from 2019. Error-filled rounds of 79-75 left him 13 strokes from making the cut.
But when confronted with the simplest of questions, McIlroy’s extended stammering at the podium was disquieting.
“Uh … er … um … ,” was all that came out for 10 to 15 excruciating seconds before McIlroy either figured out the answer or decided his willingness to share an honest truth he knew would make uncomfortable headlines leading directly into his continued quest to complete his career grand slam at Augusta in three short weeks.
His frustrations stem from his efforts to keep up with Bryson DeChambeau, which have infected his once pristine swing.
... McIlroy willingly elaborated that DeChambeau’s dominating performance in winning the U.S. Open at Winged Foot by six shots sent him down a rabbit hole he probably shouldn’t have followed.
“Probably the swing issues and where it all stems from, probably like October last year, doing a little bit of speed training, started getting sucked into that stuff,” McIlroy finally said with his trademark brutal candor. “Swing got flat, long and too rotational. Obviously, I added some speed and am hitting the ball longer, but what that did to my swing as a whole probably wasn’t a good thing, so I’m sort of fighting to get back out of that. That's what I’m frustrated with.”
With the ice finally broken, McIlroy willingly elaborated that DeChambeau’s dominating performance in winning the U.S. Open at Winged Foot by six shots sent him down a rabbit hole he probably shouldn’t have followed.
“I felt like I made some good strides,” he said of where his game was last fall. “I played well at the Tour Championship, played well at the U.S. Open. I sort of look back at Winged Foot and I look at my swing there, and I would be pretty happy with that again. And then after Winged Foot I had a few weeks before we went to the West Coast and I started to try to hit the ball a bit harder, hit a lot of drivers to get a bit more speed, and I felt like that was sort of the infancy of where these swing problems have come from. So it’s just a matter of trying to get back out of it.”
It was a stunning admission from a player who was No. 1 in the world last June but since has tumbled to No. 11. Was it wise to pursue such a dramatic course of action fixing something that wasn’t broken?
“I think a lot of people did,” he said. “I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t anything to do with what Bryson did at the U.S. Open. I think a lot of people saw that and were like, ‘Whoa, if this is the way they’re going to set golf courses up in the future, it helps. It really helps.’
“The one thing that people don’t appreciate is how good Bryson is out of the rough. Not only because of how upright he is but because his short irons are longer than standard, so he can get a little more speed through the rough than us, than other guys. And I thought being able to get some more speed is a good thing, and maybe – to the detriment a little bit of my swing – I got there, but I just need to maybe rein it back in a little bit.”
In addition to his frustration, McIlroy is physically and mentally exhausted from playing seven of the past eight weeks across two continents. He’ll have an off week on each side of the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play to rest and restore some semblance of confidence before the Masters starts in 27 days.
“It was certainly ambitious, especially going (from) Abu Dhabi to the West Coast,” McIlroy said. “But I wanted to play. I played sparingly sort of from September onwards last year, so I wanted to play quite a bit. I think these next three weeks coming up it’ll give me some time to work on some stuff and I can get ready for (Augusta).”
McIlroy’s mood contrasted the refreshingly upbeat atmosphere at the Players Championship, where the welcoming of 10,000 or so fans on site created a certain buzz for the first time in a year. While his fellow Europeans Lee Westwood, Matthew Fitzpatrick and Sergio García headlined a compelling cast on the early leaderboard at TPC Sawgrass, McIlroy was heading home to search for answers to his self-inflicted problems.
“I want to get on the range right away and try to get through this. Yeah, I’m pretty determined to get back to where I know I can be.”
RORY McILROY
The timing could not be worse. McIlroy left Augusta National Golf Club only five months ago with a boost in confidence having played the final three rounds of the November Masters in 15-under par – tying the lowest 54-hole score by a European player.
Is that confidence diminished by what has happened to his swing since?
“I think so,” he said, his honesty again revealing the depth of his frustrations as another chance looms for him to secure that elusive missing piece of his major championship résumé.
“I struggled there on the first day,” McIlroy added. “Just sort of started to trust myself a little bit and found something in between that first and second round on Friday, and then, as you said, I played really well from then on in.
“I mean, I certainly have an idea in my head of the way I want to play that golf course, and I felt like I really made some good strides in November. But if you’re not hitting the shots, then it doesn’t make any difference. First and foremost, I have to be able to hit the shots and get the ball starting on my line and control the flight and control the spin. At the minute I’m struggling to do that, and if you can’t do that going to Augusta, you’ve got no chance.”
Despite all of his confessions and lamentations, however, McIlroy didn’t leave the podium without offering one thread of optimism. He hasn’t surrendered to his frustrations.
“I want to get on the range right away and try to get through this,” he said. “Yeah, I’m pretty determined to get back to where I know I can be.”
E-Mail Scott