Experts write off Rory’s Masters
RORY McIlroy may believe his putting is good enough to secure a first Masters title and complete a career Grand Slam but some experts aren’t so sure.
The four-time Major winner has dropped from the top of the rankings to 10th, with putting at the heart of the 28-year-old Ulsterman’s recent struggles, and his form does not suggest he can live his Augusta dream.
McIlroy’s 17 months without a tournament win is the longest barren spell in his professional career and Golf Channel analyst, former World number one David Duval is alarmed.
“His putting isn’t much improved, his iron play slipped mightily and he hasn’t looked close to winning on Tour in his recent starts,” he said. “I think Rory’s putting continues to put pressure on his iron game.
“I feel like he’s struggling, and you have to keep forcing it closer and closer to the hole. You are going to miss shots, you’re going to be in bad spots, and I think that’s part of what’s happening right now.”
Another Golf Channel analyst, Brandel Chamblee, added: “I think he’s probably as far as he’s ever been to being back to where he was. His iron play has never been worse. That’s the most important factor in winning at Augusta, putting yourself in the right place to putt. He’s completely out of sorts. It’s not the Rory McIlroy that won four Majors.
“He’s 10th in the world. He’s still a formidable player and there’s still a threat there, but he’s gone into Augusta every year of his career in better shape than he’s in now.” Meanwhile, David Feherty believes big things could be in store for Tiger Woods (above) at Augusta.
“He’s carrying himself a little taller. He’s walking differently. He looks like, and I’ve known him for 20 years, like something is stirring,” Feherty said.
The perennial goal for Woods remains a fifth green jacket. He hasn’t won the Masters in 13 years and last played it in 2015.
“If he can play well in the run-up to the Masters, I think it will be an amazingly compelling event this year,” Feherty added.
“It wouldn’t surprise me at all if he does... he looks really good.”
In the WGC-Mexico Championship, England’s Chris Paisley may not have been deemed worthy of a profile picture on the tournament website, but his name featured on top of the leaderboard during the first round.
Paisley was ranked 289th in the world at the end of 2017, but won his maiden European Tour title in the BMW SA Open in Jan- uary and followed that up with fifth-place finishes in both Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
That secured his World Golf Championship debut in Mexico via the top 10 on the European Tour’s Race to Dubai and the 31-year-old was making the most of his opportunity in an elite 64man field competing for a winner’s cheque for £1.2m from a prize fund of £7.2m.
Paisley birdied the first, second, fifth and sixth holes to reach the turn in 31 at Chapultepec Golf Club and then went on to record a six-under round of 65.
At one point he shared the lead but then South African Louis Oosthuizen edged a shot ahead of him, with Spaniard on five under.