Scottie Scheffler leads the bounceback stats on the PGA Tour showing his ability to forget what’s gone on before. Rory McIlroy hopes to channel some of that amnesia and forget about winning the grand slam in order to sharpen his focus for this week’s brutal US Open test at Oakmont.
Poor form and driver issues have clouded over McIlroy’s post grand slam era to date while he has also admitted to a lack of motivation in the aftermath of his Masters victory at Augusta. Many have questioned his focus over the last six weeks but Oakmont has certainly piqued his interest this week.
“You dream about the final putt going in at the Masters, but you don’t think about what comes next,” said McIlroy who missed the cut here in 2016.
“I think I’ve always been a player that struggles to play after a big event, after I win whatever tournament. I always struggle to show up with motivation the next week because you’ve just accomplished something and you want to enjoy it and you want to sort of relish the fact that you’ve achieved a goal.
“I think chasing a certain goal for the better part of a decade and a half, I think I’m allowed a little bit of time to relax a little bit. But here at Oakmont, I certainly can’t relax this week.”
McIlroy was the best player in the world on form prior to the Masters and while it is understandable that his form dipped over the last few weeks, the worst finish of his career at the Canadian Open might have been a blessing in disguise ahead of this week, The Open Championship and Ryder Cup.
“I think it’s trying to have a little bit of amnesia and forget about what happened six weeks ago. Then just trying to find the motivation to go back out there and work as hard as I’ve been working. I worked incredibly hard on my game from October last year all the way up until April this year. It was nice to sort of see the fruits of my labor come to fruition and have everything happen.
“But at the same time, you have to enjoy that. You have to enjoy what you’ve just accomplished. I certainly feel like I’m still doing that and I will continue to do that. At some point, you have to realize that there’s a little bit more golf left to play this season, here, Portrush, Ryder Cup, so those are obviously the three big things that I’m sort of looking at for the rest of the year.
“But I think weeks like Quail Hollow or even weeks like last week, it makes it easier to reset in some way, to be like, okay, I sort of need to get my stuff together here and get back to the process and sort of what I’d been doing for that seven months from October last year until April this year.”
Leave a comment