Rory roars
When Rory McIlroy missed the cut at the Valspar Championship last week, many thought the Northern Irishman was a long way from regaining the form that made him world No. 1 for 95 weeks.
In four events on the PGA Tour this season, McIlroy missed two cuts and in the other two, his best finish was a tie for 20th. Despite his poor showing, McIlroy said he was not very far from being good again.
There were skeptics, but McIlroy proved to be right.
In a performance that perhaps ranks as the best among his 14 PGA Tour wins, McIlroy stitched together a mind-blowing eight-under-par 64 in the final round Sunday to win the Arnold Palmer Invitational. His 18-under total beat runner up Bryson DeChambeau (68) by three strokes, Henrik Stenson (71) by four and Justin Rose (71) by five.
Tiger Woods was fifth, eight strokes behind, after shooting a 69. It was a still a brilliant round for the former world No. 1 who is playing in just his fifth tournament after an absence of more than a year and after undergoing spinal fusion surgery 11 months ago.
Woods made a run, going 12 under for the tournament after 15 holes, and was just one shot behind the leaders when he teed up on the 16th. In a rare mental miscalculation, Tiger used a driver instead of a safer club. The result was an out-of-bounds drive, a bogey on the easiest hole on the course, and an end to his quest for a ninth victory in this event.
McIlroy, 28, meanwhile, who had been struggling for more than a year because of various injuries, turned his missed cut at Valspar into a blessing. He returned to his Florida home and worked on his game. He shortened his backswing to have more control of his long game, and then fixed his putting.
He did not change his putting mechanics, he changed his mindset. He consulted with former PGA Tour veteran Brad Faxon, one of the Tour’s best putters. Faxon advised McIlroy to free up his mind and to be more instinctive.
The result was nothing short of phenomenal. In the final round Sunday, McIlroy birdied eight of his last 13 holes, five of his last six, capped by a 25-footer on the 18th that sealed victory. Overall, he needed just 25 putts for the round, and had 100 putts in 72 holes, a dramatic turnaround from a player ranked 125th in strokes gained in putting before the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
“I kept saying the last few weeks that I wasn’t that far away and it just takes something to click into place, and something clicked into place with my long game, obviously something clicked into place with my putting as well, and this is the result,” McIlroy said.
McIlroy’s win and Tiger’s resurgence have made the Masters two weeks from now the most anticipated major in years. And it is not just because of them. There’s three-time Masters champion Phil Mickelson, 46, who broke a longwinless spell two weeks ago, and there’s world No. 1 Dustin Johnson. Add Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Jason Day, Jon Rahm, Justin Rose, Rickie Fowler, Sergio Garcia and Hideki Matsuyama in the equation, and the Masters is shaping up to be a tournament to remember.
It always has been, but perhaps more so this year than in the past.