Rory has two majors to save his season
TRENDING on the Golf Channel all week has been a clip of Rory McIlroy at Shinnecock Hills handing a greenback to a fan who’d predicted he couldn’t chip the ball to within two feet at the 13th hole during practice. He took on the wager and played an exquisite shot to within ‘gimme’ range before graciously handing the bill back with a smile. He’d made his point; no handicap amateur should tangle with the pros. Certainly not this one.
Yet, when battle commenced this week, he was unable to do what he’d been doing for fun, stiffing chips from the run-off areas of Shinnecock Hills.
In fact, he wasn’t able to do much right over two days. His 10 over par 80 on Thursday was horrendous and his front nine 39 on Friday was equally grim.
At 14 over par, he was a Ferrari tootling along among the Minardis and the four birdies he chalked up in his final eight holes, when there was nothing at stake, were irrelevant.
It’s the guys at the top you want to pass out, not the tailenders.
For all the number of world rankings points he has amassed in 2018 – he is second only to number one Dustin Johnson this year — it is the majors which define him, not rankings, or humdrum PGA Tour events.
In April, he was unable to close the deal at the Masters on Sunday while he flunked his Shinnecock Hills test for a third successive missed cut at a US Open.
The USGA set-up their courses to test the mental strength of golfers, as much as their shot-making abilities. McIlroy was found lacking on this occasion.
Consider the very first hole he played on Thursday, the par four 10th.
The smart play according to Ray Floyd, who won the US Open at Shinnecock Hills in 1986, is to lay-up off the tee with a mid-iron to a wide plateau which affords a direct view to the raised green.
McIlroy creamed his tee shot beyond the plateau, tumbling down to the dip below.
He covered 329 yards in distance even though the aggressive play left him totally unsighted for his approach.
Not that he seemed to mind. It was his way of saying, ‘Hey, Shinnecock, we’re playing this course my way.’
He almost made birdie and probably felt justified in his strategy, even though it was flawed.
For Shinnecock Hills is a rattlesnake of regal real estate that can bite at any time. It demands constant vigilance and respect.
Ian Poulter dropped his guard once in 36 holes and it cost him a quadruple bogey seven late on Friday.
Like the traditional US Open venues, it can only be brought to heel by patience and a smart strategy. Had McIlroy done his homework? The way he played suggested otherwise.
When he spoke to the media late on Friday night, he made an extraordinary admission of his Thursday trials when breezes ranging from 15 to 20 miles per hour swept across Long Island. ‘I haven’t played in wind like that for quite a long time. I just felt I couldn’t hit it far enough left or right to allow for the wind,’ he said. ‘I just wasn’t prepared for the conditions.’ Not prepared? For anyone reared on Irish links, as McIlroy was, such draughts are commonplace and aspiring professionals learn how to deal with them.
At 15, McIlroy shot a 61 at the Valley Links in Royal Portrush; he also won the West of Ireland twice at Rosses’ Point and the Irish Close at the European Club before he was old enough to buy a beer. These seaside gems aren’t known for their tranquillity.
For all the information on weather charts, coastal courses have their own micro-climates and the key is to be ready for eventualities. It seems he wasn’t.
At Shinnecock, the winds challenged him to do the right thing but he was unable to do so, and his opening 27 holes were akin to car-crash golf. Rather than grind it out by finding fairways and greens, he kept finding the fescue and bunkers.
Not for the first time in a major, he was found out in a war of attrition. It happened at Oakmont two years ago as well.
Chiselling out majors when Old Man Par is your friend isn’t his forte and Paul McGinley warned how his ability was being challenged ‘to play these sort of courses’.
McIlroy himself ruefully acknowledged how over the ‘last three years I have only had three majors to target, and this one has been a write-off’. How could that be when he spent more time on Long Island in advance of the event than anyone else? Had he not figured out the value of par?
Pointedly, his four majors have been won with scores ranging from 13 under par to 17 under par. He now has two majors to save his season, The Open at Carnoustie on July 19-22 and the US PGA at Bellerive, St Louis on August 9-12.
It was at the Open last summer where he fired JP Fitzgerald, apparently blaming him for club selection on the 10th hole in the third round where he ran up a double bogey when contending.
It was Fitzgerald who’d told him, in most unparliamentary language, to buck up after a shocking start on the Thursday morning, but the pep talk didn’t save him from the axe.
McIlroy has since turned to his pal Harry Diamond who, like Fitzgerald, is a fine amateur player but perhaps not the right man for the heat of battle.
Being stubborn, though, McIlroy will insist that he is, but others are not so sure. More often than not, friends, particularly close ones, will tell you what you want to hear, not what you should hear.
On a weekend without an Irish professional at a major for the first time since the 2010 Masters, one is still standing at Shinnecock Hills – caddie Colin Byrne.
As bagman for Rafa Cabrera Bello, Byrne has an outside shot at a second US Open, having won at Shinnecock with Retief Goosen in 2004.
The Spaniard, who is knocking on the door for a major, holds the vastly experienced Dubliner in high regard. ‘Colin is good for me.
‘He knows the course very well. I really treasure his advice,’ he said after Friday’s second round.
Just how much influence Byrne has on Cabrera Bello’s in-tournament strategy isn’t known but you can bet it’s more than Diamond has with McIlroy.
Long since his own man, maybe it’s time for McIlroy to lean that bit more on others.
So long his own man, maybe it’s time for McIlroy to lean on others