RORY: I NEED A KICK UP THE SAWGRASS
Mcilroy desperate for a sign in Florida that he can end his 10-year Major drought
RORY MCILROY wants Sawgrass to kick-start his season.
Mcilroy began the year with a second place in the Dubai Invitational and victory in the Dubai Desert Classic seven days later, but has finished no better than 21st in each of his four events on the PGA Tour.
The world No.2 will seek a second victory at Sawgrass in Florida, starting today, and he will also contest the Valero Texas Open immediately before the Masters at Augusta National, four weeks from today on April 11. A first Major win since 2014 would make Mcilroy just the sixth player to complete a career Grand Slam.
“I’m not missing cuts but, at the same time, given how I’ve driven the golf ball over the last three weeks I should be contending in the tournaments that I’ve played,” the Northern Irishman said.
“I have this amazing feeling with my woods at the minute but, when I try to recreate that feeling with the irons, it starts left and goes further left. I have a swing thought for my woods and I need a different swing thought for my irons, and that’s what I’ve been working on over the last couple days. I feel like every other part of the game is in great shape.”
Mcilroy has recorded 19 top-10s in Major championships since winning the 2014 US PGA at Valhalla, which will host the event again from May 16-19.
However, the 34-year-old’s
dismay at his failure to add to his four Major titles was recently captured in the second season of Netflix documentary Full Swing as he reacted to American rival Brooks Koepka’s fifth Major win in the 2023 US PGA.
“I feel good enough to f ***** g top-10 in my head, but not good enough to win,” Mcilroy vented in the locker room at Oak Hill.
Speaking yesterday, Mcilroy said: “I’m under no illusion that the clock is ticking. It has been 10 years since I’ve won one of them. I’ve had chances but those just
haven’t gone my way. I just need to keep putting myself in those positions and sooner or later it’s going to happen.”
Mcilroy believes his spell on the PGA Tour’s policy board took a toll on his time, rather than his golf. But, despite no longer being in that position, he was still inundated with questions about the state of golf.
He conceded that the top stars may have held the Tour “to ransom” when he and Tiger Woods led a playersonly meeting in Delaware in 2022 which led to the creation of the controversial ‘Signature Events’, eight tournaments where each has a prize fund of £15.6million but permits only a limited field of players.
Mcilroy, 14-1 second favourite to triumph in Sawgrass this weekend, said: “The Signature Events really worked last year but they’re not quite capturing the imagination this year.
“I think it’s because fans are fatigued with what’s going on in the game. We need to reengage the fan and re-engage them in a way sot the focus is on the play and not on talking about equity and all the rest.”