Graeme McDowell has run out of superlatives to describe Rory McIlroy and feels he has evolved his game to the point where he can win on any golf course in any conditions after the six-time major champion wrestled himself to the top of the leaderboard at the US Open.
Shinnecock Hills bared its teeth on Thursday with strong winds curtailing scoring and McIlroy’s one-under 69 trails leader Sam Stevens by the minimum.
Both McDowell and McIlroy have US Open titles under their belt from 2010 and 2011 respectively. It can be argued that McDowell’s triumph at Pebble Beach was on a more traditional US Open layout while a saturated Congressional twelve months later was helpless to McIlroy’s swashbuckling power play.
But power play won’t get it done on classic US Open set ups which Shinnecock Hills is and McIlroy has had to adapt his game to a more patient and strategic approach and although it hasn’t led to a second USGA title he has back to back second places in 2023 and 2024. McDowell feels McIlroy is capable of playing any style of golf which perhaps wasn’t the case when he first burst onto the scene.
“You run out of superlatives to describe Rory McIlroy,” McDowell said. “It’s amazing. You know, 15 years ago, I would have said, essentially, these aren’t his type of conditions. But he’s an experienced, intelligent player and he knows how to get it done anywhere.”
As for his own day, the 46-year-old was making his first US Open appearance since 2020 after coming through qualifying. It was a dream start as the Portrush native birdied his first two holes to take the early lead. But as frustration and mistakes crept in his putting surprisingly deserted him as he slumped to a 76 to sit 132nd on the leaderboard.
Course set up has dominated the storylines this week and with the USGA taking a cautious approach to defend the course against strong Thursday winds, G Mac believes the course was actually too soft for US Open standards.
“I can’t believe I’m saying, but I mean, it was maybe too soft,” McDowell said. “Like from what I saw in practice to what we’re seeing today, it’s a different golf course. Spinning golf balls back down while. But clearly, the wind forecast, they had to be safe. They had to play on the right side. The wind gusts haven’t showed up and maybe they will. It was tough to recalibrate the system a little bit.”
Pádraig Harrington took one more blow than McDowell on Thursday morning and while he lamented poor driving in his performance the three-time major winner feels the USGA have presented a tough but fair test.
“Obviously it got quite windy, but you couldn’t have asked for a better setup,” said Harrington, who shot 77. “There obviously was a couple of tough holes, but all the tees were up. The pins were as easy as can be. Greens were soft. So it was a tough test but very, very fair.
“I think they’ll be happy with where the scoring is at. It seems to be a few guys under par. It’s very, very playable. There’s a couple of holes straight into the wind, which were tough, and the tee’s up. It wasn’t tough because — it was just tough because of how straight the wind was. I always like a bit of side wind to help me. So a few of the holes, they changed a little bit like that.”
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