RORY again,needs TUNNEL VISION
Faldo: He’s got years of scar tissue at Augusta... he needs to reset... forget the past and start saying: Look how talented I am
NICK FALDO says Rory Mcilroy has to “free” himself of negativity and distractions to finally win the Masters this week.
The Ulsterman missed the cut last year after taking the unofficial role as the PGA Tour’s anti-liv spokesman – and then conducting an on-course interview during his round.
Three-time Masters champion Faldo believes Mcilroy (the pair, right) is in the prime of his career a month before reaching his 35th birthday.
But as Mcilroy approaches the 10th anniversary of his last Major win in August 2014, he has resigned from the PGA Tour Policy Board, had a lesson from Butch Harmon and changed his pre-masters routine in search of his elusive career Grand Slam.
He finished third at the Texas Valero Open and plans to only arrive at Augusta National today.
But Faldo said: “Unfortunately it’s just going on, time after time. It’s not just this season. There’s four, five or six years of scar tissue, of Rory coming in as favourite and playing great.
“His short irons are his major issue. He’s one of the greatest drivers of the golf ball and then he stands up with a wedge, and we all cringe. If Butch can help him on that, that’s probably all he needs to do. He is still in his prime. They are so fit and trained now, so he has got at least another 10 years, I would say, of being supersonically fit.
“It is all about motivation and everything. We are nearly 10 years now since his last Major. That is the problem. It is the trust factor. Self-belief, confidence. Whatever you like to call it. He has tried his best at times – ‘Can I reset, can I literally forget the past, who I am? Look how talented I am and go and play golf again. Start again’.
“It is not that easy. Everybody says, ‘I wish I could play like I was 18’. We all tried that as we are getting older. Can you turn back the clock? Can you delete all the negativity that you have seen and felt?
“The feeling part is probably worse than what you are seeing. Can he start again fresh? Maybe there is a way. I wouldn’t put it past him.
“There is a way where he could find his stride because, as we know, when he finds that stride and gets that trust, then he is phenomenal. I bet that is all he wants to do – ‘Just set me free’. That is what he is trying to do.
“He has pulled himself off all the policy boards and this sort of thing.
Try and be a golfer again.
“Thirty-five is a great age to be at. That is nothing. He is fit, strong.
“He is one of the technically strongest players almost ever in the game of golf. It is finding that trust.”
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