It’s not all about El Tigre, not by a long shot. Rory McIlroy’s return from a wilderness of sorts, given that wins on tour are the barometer, provides yet further injection of energy into a golfing season that has awoken from its slumbers with something of a bang.
In McIlroy’s case, what a difference a week makes, for sure. From a point where another missed cut at the Valspar led to a meeting with former tour player Brad Faxon to discuss the dark art of putting, McIlroy’s victory in the Arnold Palmer Invitational – jumping from 13th to seventh in the latest world rankings – was proof positive of how big a role the mental game plays in the process.
For all the club twirling and fist pumping as the adrenaline coarsed through his veins down the homeward journey of the back nine at Bay Hill Club & Lodge on Sunday, it was work conducted – firstly with coach Michael Bannon to remedy a glitch in his swing, then with Faxon’s advice on putting – prior to the tournament that ultimately paid those rich dividends.
McIlroy’s first win in 18 months – dating back to his win in the Tour Championship of 2016 – could, as it has done in the past, provide the catalyst for a string of them. History tells us so, most especially in how in he followed up his win in the 2014 British Open with successive wins in the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and the US PGA. When he gets on a roll, he keeps on rolling.
So, the win to end the drought couldn’t have been any better timed, especially with the Masters – where he will seek to put the missing piece into the jigsaw and achieve the career Grand Slam – looming. Before that, of course, comes this week’s WGC Dell Match Play in Austin, Texas, where he is the lone Irish player in the 64-man field.
McIlroy’s win in the Arnold Palmer Invitational provided confirmation of the state of his game far beyond the win itself. The statistics, in this case, don’t lie: he became the first player – since strokes gained putting was first tracked in 2004 – on the PGA Tour to lead the field in that category as well as driving distance, proximity to the hole and scrambling.
Although his form on the PGA Tour of late had been indifferent, the turnaround when it came was dramatic. And especially when it came to his putting, where those few hours spent with Faxon at The Bears Club – on the Monday before Bay Hill – proved to be very fruitful indeed.
Of that get-together with Faxon, McIlroy explained: “I didn’t really hit many putts. It was more of a psychology lesson than anything else.”
The upshot, though, was that McIlroy – who reverted to a longer putter, measuring 34¼-inches in place of the 33-inch model he’d used more recently – was a more instinctive feel which was reflected in the stats. Prior to the Arnold Palmer Invitational, he ranked 124th in strokes gained putting; at Bay Hill, he ranked first.
“(Meeting with Faxon) freed up my head more than my stroke. I was complicating things a bit and thinking a little bit too much about it and maybe a little bogged down by technical or mechanical thoughts . . . you look at so many guys out here, so many different ways to get the ball in the hole, even going back to the likes of Billy Mayfair or someone that is very unorthodox but still got it done. The objective is to get that ball in the hole and that’s it. I think I lost sight of that a little bit. That sounds silly, I guess, but just reminded myself that it doesn’t matter how you do it as long as that thing goes in and that’s sort of the mindset I had this week.”
One thing which McIlroy doesn’t lack is self-confidence, even in the down times. “I’ve always believed in myself and I know that me being 100 percent healthy is good enough to not just win on the PGA Tour but win a lot. And I guess that’s what kept me going. I wanted to get back to 100 percent fitness, which I have, and that allows me to practice as much as I want, go about my business, do everything that I need to do to feel 100 percent prepared to play golf tournaments. So I never lost belief. I know that I’ve got a gift for this game and I know that if I put the time in I can make a lot of it.”
The win didn’t exactly come out of the blue, given that McIlroy had been saying his game wasn’t too far away from where he wanted it to be. Even when he was missing cuts – at the Pebble Beach pro-am and the Valspar – he was taking the glass half-full rather than half-empty approach.
“Golf is so fickle and you’re never far away from – at least I feel I’m never far away from – producing golf like what I did (in the final round 64). But on the flip side, I don’t think you’re ever far away from producing mediocre golf as well. It’s such a fine line out here and I might have sounded crazy the last few weeks when I was telling everyone it actually feels pretty close and I’m not that far away and I’m putting up 72s and 73s and all of a sudden it all clicks into place and end up winning a golf tournament by three shots and shooting 8-under on the last day. So it’s fine lines . . . . it’s not as black and white as some people make it out to be.”
So it is that McIlroy – richer to the rune of $1.6 million – heads into the WGC Dell Match Play with an added pep in his step, a title he won back in 2015, for what will be his last tournament ahead of the Masters.
McIlroy’s season so far
Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship: 3rd
Dubai Desert Classic: 2nd
AT&T Pebble Beach pro-am: missed cut
Genesis Open: T-20th
Honda Classic: T-59th
Valspar Championship: missed cut
Arnold Palmer Invitational: 1st
