Rory McIlroy feels a poor driving performance was the stumbling block for him as he missed the cut at the PLAYERS Championship with a whimper.
McIlroy had already voiced his concerns with his driver having recently picked up the TaylorMade Stealth 2 after feeling his old model was no longer within the legal limits.
The Holywood native struggled off the tee in his two rounds, hitting just 13 of 28 fairways, ranking 118th in driving accuracy as he missed the cut on five-over-par.
“Yeah, I wish I didn’t have to bet on a new driver, I wish I could just use the old one, but yeah, it is what it is.
“There’s a little bit more room off the tee, and in fairness I’ve been maybe trying to push the driver a bit too much up the fairway here rather than just taking a couple of clubs less and hitting 5-wood or 3-wood or 2-iron or whatever it is. No, but it’s still — you don’t want a big mis-hit in the bag.
“You look at the drive I hit on 18 there, and that’s way too wide for a miss. Just sort of things like that that I just need to work on.”
McIlroy finished runner-up last week in Bay Hill but never truly looked like he was going to win and he saw his hopes of returning to world number one dashed at TPC Sawgrass this week.
The four-time major champion will now ramp up his Masters preparations by travelling to Augusta National next week before teeing it up in the WGC Match Play as he looks to forget a dismal PLAYERS quickly.
“Yeah, just very blah. Yeah, I guess the course, you just have to be really on to play well here. If you’re a little off, it definitely magnifies where you are off. It is, it’s a bit of an enigma. Some years I come here, and like it feels easier than others.
“It’s just a tricky golf course, and you don’t hit fairways and you’ve got your work cut out for you.
“I actually don’t feel like I’m playing that badly at all. A few miscues here and there, putted it off the 6th green yesterday, and just stuff that — just a little untidy here and there. But hit the ball okay. Just, as I said, this course if you’re a little off definitely just magnifies where you are.”
Shane Lowry’s perseverance on Friday paid off as he edged into the final two rounds on two-over after the remaining field completed their second rounds on Saturday afternoon.
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