For a decade Rory McIlroy was ridiculed for winning just about everything else in a season except a major championship. Now it feels like only winning one major in a season is not enough to be classed as a fantastic year.
Maybe it’s because the Masters is the first major of the year and there is still so much to play for afterwards, but if McIlroy ends this golfing season with just a green jacket then he should be lauded for it. Simply because he hasn’t seen his ‘A’ game since the Ryder Cup in Bethpage Black.
If last year he suffered a post Grand Slam lull, this year he just hasn’t been at it and it should actually be a frightening prospect for everyone else that he successfully defended the Masters while barely seeing the Augusta National fairways.
Since winning a second Masters, McIlroy has competed just three times – as is his want after his decision to play a selective schedule as he balances living in Wentworth these days – with results of 19th, 7th and 12th where driving issues have plagued him.
He now infamously said that the PGA Championship at Aronimink required no driving strategy, he ended the week towards the bottom in driving accuracy and it is something he has struggled with all season. Last week at the Memorial he hung around the fringes of contention but just couldn’t hit enough fairways to bolster his challenge at a maiden title at Muirfield Village – hitting 30 of 56 and ranking 38th in driving accuracy.
McIlroy’s desire to take a back seat and play a limited schedule will only cause questions over him to linger. His absence from the RBC Canadian Open, where he has a great record, is a surprise as travelling to and from London before a US Open is hardly ideal. Can his driving really be fixed at home? Or has a lack of competition since winning the Masters been shown up? Can he turn it on when he needs it most or should he be trying to play himself into a rhythm?
You definitely can’t win the US Open from the rough. Not at Shinnecock where the rough will be five inches long. The fairways will be generous by US Open standards which will be a relief to McIlroy but so wild are his misses, it may not matter.
The start of the season began with Scheffler and McIlroy as the clear top two in the world. Despite winning early, it was obvious that Scheffler wasn’t quite at it and McIlroy is now in that category albeit both players results are remarkably consistent. But while they battle issues in their own game, it gives the rest a chance.
After Sunday night’s press conference after the Memorial you can hardly say McIlroy is bouncing in to next week’s US Open. He knows with his driving in its current state he is approaching brining a knife to a gun fight territory after he admitted that he feels limited with the big stick.
“I get a little bit underneath the plane on the way down and then from there I try to drag the handle to match it up, and then I get toe strikes, and then the toe strikes are — like, so if I’m aiming a touch left trying to hit a cut and I get a touch underneath it and then I try to save it by dragging the handle, I hit it off the toe and then it goes left.
“But then if I try to hit with one with a draw or pretty neutral, I’ll still get a little bit underneath it, and I’ll release it and it will overturn a little bit.
“But I have to try to get the club back out in front of me. But then when it gets out in front of me, if I do get it there, then it’s about having the right release pattern on the way through. I feel limited.”
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