McIlroy just can’t regain his mojo
McIlroy era may be over as young rivals will only get better
EMERGING from lockdown, Rory McIlroy targeted Jack Nicklaus’ Memorial Tournament in July along with the US PGA as a barometer for where his game stood.
After finishing 32nd and 33rd respectively in those events, he knows he’s stuck in neutral.
As he admitted on Sunday after being shunted into the San Francisco slow lane, the wheels are spinning but he’s going nowhere.
At Muirfield Village, McIlroy was a distant 13 shots behind the winner Jon Rahm; at Harding Park, he was 11 back of another young tyro, Collin Morikawa. An also-ran. And it sucked. The only mention he got on Golf Channel’s review of a dramatic final day was in a stat: along with Nicklaus, McIlroy is a younger US PGA winner than Morikawa.
‘Maybe I’m just not as good as I used to be. I don’t know. I really don’t know,’ said McIlroy. While his candour is commendable, it also indicates a shift in McIlroy’s mindset, a vulnerability in the Wee Ice Mon that wasn’t there before. Six years ago, McIlroy knew he was better than anyone else.
In that high summer he had a run of three wins in three weeks, two of them majors, The Open and US PGA; the other a WGC.
That autumn, he smiled his way to three straight runner-up finishes, in the Tour Championships either side of the Atlantic and the Dunhill Links Pro-Am.
He was Rocketman Rors, untouchable and unbeatable.
Nicklaus chuckled about his mojo and predicted many more majors were to come. Before the 2015 Irish Open in Royal County Down, McIlroy mused he’d get to 14 before he turned 40.
And now? While he’s had 10 top-10 major finishes since 2014, he remains marooned on four, one shy of the late Seve Ballesteros, two behind Nick Faldo, the leading European of the modern era. Today, the presence of McIlroy (left) on the leaderboard doesn’t freeze his rivals as it did before. Instead, they sense a veneer of weakness.
It helps these young guys bring a fearless factor to the big-game hunting grounds. They are like McIlroy of 2014, hungry and immersed in self-belief. As McIlroy considers the newcomers to the top 20 since 2014, he will have noticed their youthful sheen.
Rahm (the world number one) is only 25, Justin Thomas (two) is 27, Morikawa (five) is 23, Brooks Koepka (seven) is 30, Bryson DeChambeau (eight) is 26, and Patrick Reed (nine) is 30. A little further back, Xander Schauffele (11), Patrick Cantlay (12) and Daniel Berger (18) are in their 20s too. In all likelihood, these guys are going to improve which will make it more difficult for McIlroy to dominate again. For all his outstanding form of 2019, when he beat everyone up in regular PGA Tour events, he didn’t win a major, which is all that matters now. Professional golf at the elite level is not only a young man’s game, it is a ruthless arena. If you’re not up to it, you’re exposed. You miss cuts and get crappy tee times. Just ask Jordan Spieth, only 27 with three majors on his CV but a shadow of the player he was in 2017. McIlroy has not become spooked like Spieth has but he has to find the consistency of 2014 again, and eliminate the errors which saw him cough up 10 shots to par on holes 12-14 at Harding Park, if he’s to win another major. He is too talented not to contend but even on his A game, there is no guarantee the pack will back off, not with a howling Wolff in their midst – Matthew Wolff, 21, was fourth in Harding Park. ‘Since coming back, it’s been enough good stuff in there, I’m just making too many mistakes,’ McIlroy said. And that’s what his opponents seize on. While McIlroy has not ‘played as well as I’ve wanted to… it beats being sat on the couch at home, so I’ll take it.’ He’d also take a weekend in the frame at either the US Open next month in Winged Foot, a demanding track for long, straight, hitters, or the Masters at Augusta in November. There are two more spins on the major merry-goround for 2020. McIlroy has had 20 of them without a win since Valhalla. For a player of his status and ability, that’s too many.
‘If you’re not up to it, you’ll be exposed’