BEACH PONTE VEDRA, Fla. – We’ve all been there. It was the bad golf that was talking.
Or maybe it was a few weeks of inconsistent golf that made Rory McIlroy turn some heads Sunday at the Arnold Palmer Invitational after another disappointing finish. In the heat of the moment, the Northern Irishman acknowledged that he was “a little sad” and, “I don’t know, maybe looking the other way,” he said.
Such ideas usually lead to expected results – new swing coaches, new caddies, new equipment. But when it comes to finding endless answers for the world of No. 11 – to shame injury it also dropped out of the top 10 for the first time since 2018 – it wasn’t as big of a stretch. laying the foundation for wholesale change as much as it offered insight into how a player thinks.
“I really didn’t mean change of staff, per se. I think more of a change in philosophy or maybe what I’m trying to work on, maybe going in a slightly different direction, ”McIlroy clarified Tuesday at The Players. “Swing-wise I think some things I’m working on are not covered or I’m struggling to get a grip on what I’m trying to do, so that’s what I meant, talking about going into a different direction. “
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At first glance McIlroy’s season has not been “deserved”. He has finished within the top 10 in nearly half of his starts (four), including last week’s T-10 and a tie for sixth week. the previous week at the World Golf Championship he has been sidelined, and has lost just one cut.
Even those who claim to be 16 months away from his final impact on the PGA Tour can be questioned by the coronavirus-driven irony that the 31-year-old will technically be defended two titles this year (the ’19 Players and WGC-HSBC Champions, both of which were postponed last year due to the pandemic).
Not that that helped anything to feel for McIlroy after he closed 76 on Sunday at Bay Hill. When it comes to players of his top 10 he doesn’t move the needle and had no interest in dancing around the edges of the current competitive situation.
“I felt sorry. I was feeling disappointed. I think one of the biggest things is, it’s funny, I almost didn’t feel better if my game was worse, but it’s an inconsistency that I burned 66 on Thursday and I thought, I have it, I feel really good, and then I didn’t have that, ”he said. “The elevations and the changes are just a little too much.”
It has been a far too familiar story for McIlroy in recent weeks. It opened with a 68-71 round at the Farmers Insurance Championship only to close with a sloppy 73 to tie for 16th place. At Arnie’s Place last week, it opened rounds of 66-71 followed by a completely memorable weekend of 72-76 and a two-hour trip north to the main event of the Tour to repeat make all the painful details.
Some rounds hitting a ball looking as nimble as ever. On Day 1 last week at Bay Hill he received 3.13 hits on the field with his iron play, according to strokes received: approaching the green. On Saturday that gain had shifted to a loss of almost 2 ½ hits to the field from the same fairways – with lift, clean and space in effect.
Consistency is the goal of all golfers, whether you are a world 11 or 11 handed, but these types of yarns are just irrelevant and why on Sunday, on its way out of it. town, McIlroy was like a man ready to start over.
“I’m kind of hard to deal with and kind of trying to figure out what I need to do because the stuff is good,” he said. “But when it has gone a bit, how do you manage that? I feel like over the last few years, I’ve been really good when my game hasn’t been full, still able to shoot at 69, 70, still able to get under par, where I feel like the last few weeks when it hasn’t felt okay, I’m kind of heavy rain. ”
In particular, McIlroy said his swing struggles were the result of an “unusual pattern.” Throughout his life when things are not going well his club’s result has been to be “caught” behind his reduced body. It was a fault, but a fault he could make up for. His case is currently against that with the club getting too far ahead.
“This is my feeling at the moment, I’m not used to managing it, so that’s where the two-way loss comes in, and that’s where I have to work out. what can I do to bring it back to a familiar pattern, ”he said.
The closest thing to a swing revival for McIlroy – who still works with the same swing coach, Michael Bannon, he had as a teenager – is following the 2010 season when he began to focus his spirits to the things to do with the swing he wanted. But even that was not so much a change in his path that it was a change in his foundation.
In contrast, his recent problems feel different and maybe it’s time for a “slightly different direction,” just don’t expect wholesale change.