It seems astounding to think that even after completing the career grand slam at the Masters just two months ago people are wondering, will Rory McIlroy ever win another major?
Pressure is a funny thing. It was a decade-long weight that McIlroy would buckle under at the final hurdle, especially the last three years, but pressure also focuses the mind and it is why he was so consistent in major championships despite not getting over the line.
Until that one Sunday in April.
McIlroy had completed golf and Rory mania was set to be in full swing for the summer with players fearing what he could go on to produce with another major spree similar to his 2011-14 stretch.
“Scary for guys like us. If that was something that was holding him back and now he feels free, that could be a pretty scary thing,” said Xander Schauffele.
But a T47 finish at the US PGA Championship last month followed by the worst finish of his PGA Tour career in Canada last week as he missed the cut by a whopping twelve shots has completely let the air out of the hype balloon.
Is Rory McIlroy on the beach? Has he done a West Ham on it and just downed tools?
The Holywood man has already admitted to struggling for motivation following his Masters victory.
“I don’t know if I’m chasing anything,” McIlroy admitted. “I would certainly say that the last few weeks I’ve had a couple weeks off, and going and grinding on the range for three or four hours every day is maybe a little tougher than it used to be.
“You have this event in your life that you’ve worked towards and it happens, sometimes it’s hard to find the motivation to get back on the horse and go again.”
A driver issue has not helped McIlroy’s cause either and with rumours that he and his camp have lost focus over the last few weeks circulating, there is a lot up in the air ahead of the US Open at Oakmont on Thursday.
Sightings of McIlroy on the Oakmont driving range at 06:30am local time is encouraging and will give hope that this is the week he gets back on the proverbial horse and gets back into his groove.
But the driver will be a huge factor this week and his chances of contending, or even making the cut, rest on the big stick.
McIlroy has been searching for the missing piece of the jigsaw since his driver failed a driver conformity test at the PGA Championship last month and a strokes gained performance of 150th off the tee won’t fill him with any confidence heading to Oakmont.
In 2016, Dustin Johnson stole a march on Shane Lowry who stumbled on Sunday but he knows that driving will be the key to success this week.
“I drove it really straight,” Johnson said of his three-shot win over Lowry and Jim Furyk nine years ago. “I hit a lot of fairways. That was the only reason I shot that well.”
Hitting fairways and greens is something that should play into Lowry’s wheelhouse again but for McIlroy it seems that a US Open, where he has six top-10s in a row including back to back runner-up finishes, couldn’t be a worse test in his current state.
McIlroy became just the sixth grand slam winner and second alongside Woods in the modern era. But a post McIlroy grand slam winning world hasn’t come with the furore that was expected.
The PGA Tour are worried by McIlroy’s behaviour with the media since winning at Augusta and golf fans should be too as a world where we aren’t solely invested – whether you like him or not – in McIlroy’s major fate combined with Scottie Scheffler’s dominance is very boring.
Everyone is wondering what version of McIlroy turns up this week but our guess is as good as his but perhaps last week’s disaster in Toronto has spooked him back into life.
“Yeah, of course it concerns me. You don’t want to shoot high scores like the one I did today. Still I felt like I came here obviously with a new driver thinking that that sort of was going to be good and solve some of the problems off the tee, but it didn’t,” said McIlroy last week.
“Obviously going to Oakmont next week, what you need to do more than anything else there is hit fairways. Still sort of searching for the sort of missing piece off the tee.
“Obviously for me, when I get that part of the game clicking, then everything falls into place for me. Right now that isn’t. Yeah, that’s a concern going into next week.”
Written off by many this week, McIlroy has a point to prove again and that always makes him a dangerous animal.
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