Rory McIlroy feels he saw the rewards of some post round work with putting guru Brad Faxon on day two of the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill.
McIlroy struggled on the greens in round one, losing over three strokes on the greens and ranking 66th of the 69 players in the field on his way to a 73.
Day two brought a 70 and a much improved putting performance and he leads the field in strokes gained putting two thirds of the way through the day which leaves him 39th overall.
The four-time major winner sauntered straight to the practice green on Thursday night where he alternated between his usual mallet putter and a blade.
He stuck with the mallet and it paid dividends as he rolled in almost 90 feet in the six birdies he carded as he moved to one-under-par.
“I think so,” he said when asked did the immediate work on Thursday night pay dividends.
“I don’t know what the stats look like, but definitely felt a little better out there. Didn’t work on much. I mean, speed, I felt my speed was just a bit off more than anything.
“The greens look faster than what they are, so just trying to be a little more assertive with my speeds. Then, yeah, worked on a couple little things. I sort of sometimes with the mallet, because it is so much easier to start it on line, you get a little lazy.
“So, I brought the blade out last night just to hit a few putts to sort of get a feel of what I need to do to get the ball to the start on line with a real putter (laughing). Yeah, so worked a little bit on that. A little bit of sort of transition work from sort of back swing to through swing in the stroke. Yeah, it felt much better today.”
McIlroy’s focus on Friday was starting the ball on line.
“Yeah, just starting the ball on line and just a good strike. Sometimes I can let the putter rise up a little bit too much on the way through, and then I can catch the ball sort of more on the equator, rather than like more of a level.
“Like, when I strike a good putt, it almost feels like the ball comes out of the top of the face instead of the middle of the face. So, yeah, focused a little bit on strike, a little bit on just that sort of transition. Yeah, felt better.
“I’ve always, one is a lot shorter, but I always felt the full swing, because with a full shot you’ve got much more margin for error. You can push it a little bit, pull it a little bit, and you’re always going to be okay. But you start pushing, pulling putts, it’s not going to go in the hole.”
The Holywood man admits his struggle is keeping his right shoulder still.
“It’s all sort of right-sided stuff. Feel like my right shoulder sort of goes down in transition, sort of from back to through. Like, when it gets to the top of the back stroke, like my right shoulder feels like it goes down, which then keeps the putter low through impact. So, just a couple little things.”
McIlroy putted well in the desert swing on the DP World Tour when he won the Dubai Desert Classic but said he lost a bit of confidence coming off the poa greens during an underwhelming west coast voyage on the PGA Tour.
“I putted decent. Missed a couple of short ones that first week, but putted better the second week. I think, as well, going over to the West Coast for a couple of events can always, putting on that poa can, once you lose a touch of confidence, then you can start to, yeah, just start to not feel great with the putter.
“But as I said, it felt much better today.
“I think I’ve led the field in strokes gained off the tee at Riv and at the Honda. Probably not too far away again this week. So, ball striking-wise, I feel really good. I feel like it’s in — yeah, thankfully that’s no issue. Yeah, it’s just about just making a few more putts, and today I did that.”
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