Rory’s swing suffers in bid for harder yards
RORY McILROY believes his current swing problems are down to the Bryson effect, and trying to keep up with the prodigious exploits of the man changing the face of the sport.
The Northern Irishman made the confession after the defence of his Players Championship title drew to an ignominious conclusion at Sawgrass on Friday, when he missed the halfway cut by no fewer than 10 shots following dismal rounds of 79 and 75.
McIlroy pointed to a costly decision to look for more swing speed in the wake of Bryson DeChambeau’s US Open victory by six shots last
September, when the American pummelled Winged Foot into submission.
‘I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t anything to do with what Bryson did to win that major,’ he said. ‘I think a lot of us were thinking, if this is the way they’re going to set golf courses up in the future, it helps. It really helps.
‘I started to try to hit the ball a bit harder. I hit a lot of drivers to get more speed and I think that was the infancy of where these swing problems have come from.’
As a result of going down his destructive path, McIlroy is now outside the world top 10 rankings for the first time in three years.
The 31-year-old acknowledged ‘it will take a bit of time’ to get out of his bad habits, though time is not something he has in abundance with the Masters and another tilt at the career Grand Slam less than four weeks away.
He was bullish when asked whether he had any desire to play and practise following his Sawgrass humiliation. ‘Actually, I want to get on the range right away and try to get through this,’ he said. ‘I’m pretty determined to get back to where I know I can be.’