RORY CONFIRMS HE WON’T BE HOMING IN ON IRISH OPEN AT GALGORM
IN the build-up to any big week in the golfing calendar, the clamour is on for a story, a narrative or a way to frame the upcoming event.
Ahead of the first of the PGA Tour’s Fedex Cup play-offs, the angle was there to pitch a return to form for Rory Mcilroy, who, by the by, reiterated that he will not be at Galgorm Castle for next month’s Irish Open.
He’s the defending Fedex Cup champion, who has won eight of his 18 PGA Tour titles in the months of August and September and twice been victorious at TPC Boston — the venue of this week’s Northern Trust.
But even Mcilroy himself acknowledged that trying to pinpoint quirky — and ultimately meaningless — reasons he might jump back into the winner’s enclosure feels, at this juncture, tired at best.
In his six events since the PGA Tour swung into post-lockdown action, the expectation has been that each one, in its turn, was the week Rory would be back.
With just one finish inside the top 30 from those outings, Mcilroy has not yet returned and, you feel, is getting a little embarrassed by the repeating story.
“I sound like a broken record,” he said, while trotting out the party line that his laugh revealed even he’s sick of. “I saw some good signs last week in practice, and it’s just a matter of it translating out into the competitive arena.
“I’m still right in there. I’m in the top 10 and feel like if I can get something going here over the next few weeks, I’ve got a great chance going into (the Tour Championship at) East Lake.”
And what about that Boston feel-good factor? As handy a narrative as it might be, the reality is it means precious little.
“The most important thing is executing the shots,” Mcilroy retorted. “My execution over the last few weeks hasn’t been as good as it’s needed to be.
“It doesn’t matter how good you’ve played on a certain golf course before. If you’re not hitting the shots the way you want, then it’s not going to happen. You’re not going to have a chance.”
There are, of course, more important things for him to be thinking about, rather than trying to channel a hoodoo he is somehow supposed to hold over the Boston course.
And valuable thoughts, in golf perhaps more than any other sporting area, can actually have a bearing on success.
So maybe a new mantra may hasten that much-discussed return to form.
“It’s how you react and respond to certain things,” he explained. “I’ve got this nice quote that I got from someone last week — ‘Don’t let your golf influence your attitude; let your attitude influence your golf ’.
“That’s where I’ve been a little crossed recently where I’ve been letting my golf influence my attitude on the course instead of the other way around.
“Our mind is way more powerful than anything else, really.
If you can utilise that the right way, it’s inevitably going to help your game on the course.
“I think going out there with a bit of a better attitude, not being as reactive to misses or certain shots, will definitely be better for me going forward as we enter this big stretch of golf.”
The Fedex Cup’s top 125 golfers have made it through to this week’s event, although World No.7 Brooks Koepka has pulled out due to knee and hip injuries.
After this, the top 70 will progress to the BMW Championship with just 30 making it into the Tour Championship.
With the US Open following two weeks later, it’s a packed schedule for Mcilroy and the top players. That means, just like defending champion Jon Rahm and unfortunately for Galgorm Castle, he won’t make it to this year’s Irish Open on September 24-27.
“I don’t see myself travelling internationally for a while,” he confirmed, having said as much last month.
“It might be different if it wasn’t behind closed doors, and there could be fans there.
“It’s not an Irish Open like we’re used to it being the last few years with big prize funds and everything.
“But it’s not even that, it’s just the fact that I want to spend time at home and not travel too much the next few months.”
With numerous tournaments in the Far East being cancelled or postponed, the CJ Cup is rumoured to be among the events which could temporarily relocate to the United States and Mcilroy sounds interested in taking part.
The 31-year-old said: “If they were to do that, I don’t want to diminish the tournaments, but it’s a gap-filler, right?
“You play US Open, you play those couple on the west coast and then you play The Masters. That sounds like a wonderful fall (autumn) schedule to me.
“I think everyone now is seeing the end of the season as after The Masters.
“The Masters in November I think has taken the place of one of those Race to Dubai events in Europe.”
Mcilroy enters the Northern Trust eighth in the Fedex Cup rankings, with Graeme Mcdowell and Shane Lowry facing a battle to reach next week’s second play-off round, currently ranked 113th and 122nd respectively.
Mcilroy begins his opening round at 1.15pm BST alongside Daniel Berger and Brendan Todd, with Mcdowell starting at 6.39pm and Open champion Lowry teeing off at 6.50pm.
Koepka’s PGA Tour season, meanwhile, is over after that withdrawal from the Northern Trust due to injury.
Koepka has struggled with a left knee injury which saw him sidelined for three months last season and also needed oncourse treatment to his hip during his title defence at the US PGA Championship in San Francisco, which was ultimately won by his fellow American Collin Morikawa.
Over on the European Tour, Cormac Sharvin and Jonathan Caldwell are both playing in the ISPS Wales Open, hoping to add to recent top 20 finishes.