RORY MUST BE AT HIS SUNDAY BEST
McILROY’S PUTTING WORK WILL SEE HIM EXCEL AGAIN - McGINLEY
RORY McILROY returns to action at the Farmers Insurance Open in California this week, with Paul McGinley backing him to come up with a solution to his ‘Sunday problem’.
The Northern Irishman has been working with putting coach Brad Faxon in Florida over the past fortnight, as he seeks a return to the winner’s circle for the first time in nearly a year.
McIlroy has played plenty of good golf, to the extent of finding himself in the final group on a Sunday on seven separate occasions in the past 12 months — but each time he’s come up short.
‘I don’t think there’s any doubt it has got into his head,’ said McGinley. ‘He’s making mistakes on Sundays he wouldn’t normally make if he was fully confident. But I saw a lot of him during the season opener in Hawaii recently, and liked what I saw.
‘Brad helps with the mental side of putting and that’s what Rory needs: he’s at his best when he’s creative and not bogged down with technique.’
This is one of six events McIlroy will play in America in the build-up to his next tilt at the career Grand Slam at the Masters in April.
‘I think it makes perfect sense to stay in America given what’s at stake when he gets to Augusta,’ said McGinley. ‘I know some people think he’s fallen behind the likes of Brooks Koepka and Justin Thomas, but if he wins the Masters he puts himself on a completely different level.
‘We’re at an interesting stage in Rory’s career. He’s almost 30, settled in America, he’s been at the top and got all the money he’ll ever want. Now, can he re-invent himself for when he’s in his thirties? ‘That’s what the great players have done. Look at Tiger Woods. Can Rory find a way back to those days in the final round when he would have a walk of destiny right from the start? We know he’s got the right stuff inside, but can he bring it out again? I’m hopeful, I must say.’
McGinley, who is a member of the European Tour’s board, finds himself on sensitive ground when I ask about Rory’s recent controversial comments regarding the circuit being merely a ‘stepping stone’ for America.
‘I didn’t understand why he said it, to be honest,’ he said.
‘We can all see that America is the place to be if you’re a top 20 player in the world. Why wouldn’t you want to play there, with three of the four majors over there and everything else. I thought it was incredibly harsh, but we don’t want to fall out with him.
‘We all know him and like him, and he’s an important part of our tour. I know people keep saying there must be an agenda, but if there is, I honestly don’t know about it. We hope he’ll stay being a member this year, and know he will be a member next year, because there’s no way he’ll miss a Ryder Cup.’
The mention of the biennial competition inevitably brings us to Pádraig Harrington’s appointment as captain. How amazing that two lads who grew up together in Dublin, went to the same school — and both should go on to lead Europe.
Is McGinley, who skippered Europe to victory at Gleneagles in 2014, miffed that he won’t be one of Harrington’s assistants next year? ‘Not a bit,’ he said. ‘Neither of us wanted it. He was my best mate on tour and we’ll have lots of conversations but he’s his own man.
‘I know it’s much harder to win away, but Pádraig will have a fantastic team, and he’ll have a course in Whispering Straits that has the look and feel of the desert courses in the Middle East that so many of the Europeans know well.
‘The Americans will also be under massive pressure, after what happened in Paris last year. After we beat them in Gleneagles, they got their task force, they got everything they wanted, they won at home, and they won a couple of Presidents Cups comfortably. But then they got to Versailles and lost by a bigger margin than Tom Watson at Gleneagles! So, they’ll be under huge pressure to come up with something, and Pádraig is a master of exploiting that sort of situation.
‘He’s brilliant at down playing expectations and placing the burden on his opponent. Look at his major wins. He always claimed he had an injury in the build-up, or he was tired. Then look what happened on Sundays, when he had that look in his eye.’ McGinley still has that look as well, an undimmed passion for the game that now makes him one of its most astute observers.