On hearing this was his 15th appearance at the PGA Championship, Rory McIlroy did one of those instinctive reactions. A shake of the head, his lips rapidly – if briefly – twitching in that motion of allowing air to escape. Getting older, for sure; and, after the disappointment of a missed cut at the Masters, perhaps a little wiser too as he heads into another major.
A month on from the last, the career record remains the same. Four wins, and none since lifting the Wanamaker Trophy back in 2014.
What’s different here at Oak Hill Country Club in upstate New York is a discernible difference in expectations, of not getting so far ahead of himself. Visualisation is all well and good but there is the matter of actually staying in the moment, of working step by step through 72 holes (hopefully!), and arriving at the destination.
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The Masters has come and gone and the healing process on any inflicted scar tissue has taken most of its course. “Golf is golf, and it happens and you’re going to have bad days. It wasn’t really the performance of Augusta that’s hard to get over, it’s the mental aspect and the deflation of it and sort of trying to get your mind in the right place to start going forward again, I guess.”
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Certainly, as McIlroy talked here in the run-up to this latest major examination, there was a marked difference in tone to how he had approached matters at Augusta National.
A more understated use of his words, it seemed.
As McIlroy put it, “I was never so sure that I was going to have a great week at Augusta. Never so sure, and then that happens. It was a great lesson for me to not put too much into feelings or vibes. You know, I shot five-under on the back nine on the Wednesday afternoon and thought everything was great. I was in a good spot. But that’s golf. It’s an impostor at times and that was the chat I had with [Bob] Rotella the night before.
“Like, ‘I feel so good. How can I not get ahead of myself?’ And this game can bring you back down to earth pretty quickly. But I think the best way to deal with it is to not let yourself get to that level of expectation. So, that’s what I am trying to do. I’m just trying to take what the golf course gives me and hit good shots and just trying to have a little more acceptance. I think back to Augusta, and maybe over the last few months as well, and my level of acceptance probably hasn’t got where it needs to be. If I work on that, and I do the right things, I know I’ll start to play some really good golf again.”
The stable form-line so traditionally a part of McIlroy’s game has been rather more unstable of late. Two missed cuts (at the Masters and The Players) in his last five tournament appearances, along with a runner-up in the Arnold Palmer and a third placed finish in the Dell Matchplay. Up. Down. Up. Down.
Yet, for the world number three, it is about acceptance now. “They say embrace the struggle, right? And I’m not saying that I’m struggling a lot. Like, I had a chance to win Bay Hill and a chance to win the Matchplay and it’s only six weeks ago. So it is not like this has been a long-term thing. It gives you a purpose to go to the range and work on things. I think success can breed complacency at times and I think having little wake-up calls along the way can be a good thing,” said McIlroy.
“I think I’m close. I’ve made some good strides even from Quail Hollow a couple weeks ago. I’m seeing some better things, better start lines, certainly just some better golf shots. I’m a little more sure of where I’m going to start the ball and sort of a more consistent shot pattern ... if I can execute the way that I feel like I can, then I still believe that I’m one of the best players in the world and I can produce good golf to have a chance of winning this week.”
McIlroy is actually an honorary member at Oak Hill – his wife Erica is from Rochester – and, if not exactly a hometown event, it would seem the people of this upstate New York city have adopted him as one of their own.
For McIlroy, the task is to focus on his own game, his personal mission. “I’m here at a golf tournament and I need to get myself in the right frame of mind to go out there and play the golf course the best way I can. I’d much rather reflect on this being a great place to win rather than projecting more or less. It’s a great venue. It’s a great golf course. I think it sets up well for me. And whether it’s in Rochester or the moon, it’s sort of the same thing.”
Follow all of the action from Oak Hill via The Irish Times liveblog, beginning at lunchtime on Thursday at irishtimes.com/sport
