Rory McIlroy still isn’t quite firing on all cylinders, but despite dropping five strokes over two holes on day one of the Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club, the world number two has seen enough over the first 54 holes to know that his game is not far away.
“I feel like it’s been a pretty good tournament apart from two holes on Thursday,” he said, “going double-triple on 15, 16 on Thursday wasn’t ideal.
“Honestly, apart from that, it’s been pretty good. Sort of liked how I’ve played, liked how I’ve hit the ball. A couple loose shots here and there, but overall I’ve been pretty encouraged with how I played.
“Pebble was a bit of a writeoff. Again, like it was a very strange round on that first day going from 6 under to 1 under really quickly. And then yeah, it was just sort of, I don’t know, I wouldn’t say — not that I wasn’t giving it my all, but it was just sort of one of those weeks where, yeah, it just didn’t feel — I don’t know, I probably didn’t — I wasn’t fully in it, I guess.
“I did some good work last week, my coach Michael Bannon came over and I felt pretty good about everything this week even though obviously not quite in contention. Game’s feeling pretty good.”
He’s still in the tournament, of course, and a good final round could yet see him force his way into the top 10 for what would be a fourth top-10 finish in six starts on what has become one of the strongest-attended and prestigious events on the PGA Tour circuit.
The same cant be said for Jordan Spieth, of course, after the three-time major winner was disqualified for signing an incorrect score card after his second round.
“No. I’ve been close,” McIlroy responded when asked if he’d ever made the same mistake. “I’ve been close, but never been late for a tee time, never been — taken the wrong drop two weeks ago. I think as professional golfers, I mean, it’s sort of, you know, it’s the one thing, and I understand with Jordan, he was hot coming off the golf course, it’s easily done. But yeah, just unfortunate for him and unfortunate for the tournament that he’s not around.”
In the immediate aftermath of the Spieth DQ, the internet was awash with arguments both for and against the ruling which deems an incorrect signing a disqualifiable offence, and McIlroy sees both sides of the claims.
“You know, if we’re really trying to keep this game like unbifurcated and trying to — you know, the pros play by the same rules as the amateurs, then we all need to keep our playing partners’ scorecards and we’re responsible for that,” he said.
“But I also see the other side of the coin where there’s thousands of people watching us, every shot’s tracked on Shot Tracker and on the PGA TOUR app, so if it — is it really needed at this point.
“So I can see both sides of it, both sides of the argument. I probably am more of a traditionalist than anything else so I fall into the camp of it’s worked for so long, I don’t think you really need to change it.”
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