It's not easy being the king. That is akin to the position Rory McIlroy – world number three, four-time Major winner and tournament host – holds heading into the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open at the K Club. And he will be hoping to finally get rid of what he has termed a "pathetic" record in the tournament. He remains, however, very much the poster boy.
As the 25-year-old Northern Irishman seeks to break his Irish Open hoodoo and claim a first tournament win of the season, he took issue with what he called “the negative spin” that has been placed on his form so far this year.
“I know expectations for myself are higher than other players, but if you look at my record this year, my bad weeks are top-10s basically,” he said.
“So it frustrates me that the narrative is, ‘there’s something missing in Rory’s game’ or ‘What’s wrong with Rory?’. I don’t feel like there’s anything wrong.
“It’s very close . . . I might need to make something happen, but it’s not as faraway as I feel some people think it is. I feel very comfortable with where my game is at, and I know that if I got out and played my best or close to my best, that I’m going to have a great chance to win this week.”
Stepping stone
He has certainly knocked on the door often enough to get some response. McIlroy has six top-10 finishes in nine strokeplay tournaments so far this year and reached the semi-finals of the WGC-Dell Matchplay.
“It just hasn’t happened yet, and I’m trying to stay as patient as possible. I just need to string four good rounds together in a tournament and I feel from there I’ll be off and running, and that could be the catapult and stepping stone to another great season.”
McIlroy's assertions that the best has yet to come this year was backed up by Graeme McDowell, who said: "I still look at Rory compared to guys like Jason Day, Jordan Spieth, Dustin Johnson, the great 20-something young players in the world, and I still think Rory has got the capabilities to be the best of them all. He's the rawest talent and the best ball-striker and has the best all-around game of any of the young players I've ever seen."
The one tournament in which McIlroy has yet to fully demonstrate his majesty is, bizarrely, the Irish Open. For the past three years, his lot has been: missed cut, missed cut, missed cut. Three free weekends.
Although McIlroy hasn’t won yet this season, there have been close calls and near misses. Perhaps the pressure of trying to win an Irish Open, one he wants on his CV, will provide the missing ingredient.
Intense pressure
“I feel like some of the best golf I’ve played over the last few years is when I’ve been under the most intense amount of pressure,” he said.
“At the start of my career, it used to intimidate me and make me tentative, for the most part it brings the best out of me. And I guess sometimes that’s what has frustrated me this year is I’ve struggled to let that happen . . . I’d love to put myself in another pressure situation this week to have a chance to win and hopefully change the way it’s been going and turn it into something positive.”
