McIlroy: I better keep my mouth shut now!

Rueful Rory admits his top tip for Scheffler has made it harder to end major drought

Rory McILroy acknowledges the ‘ticking clock’ in his mind since he last won a major. There’s also a recognition that efforts to stop it might be assisted by keeping his mouth shut.

The latter was admitted by the world No 2 yesterday, albeit less in relation to his regular commentary on golf’s politics and more in the context of the beast he has seemingly awoken in Scottie Scheffler.

Indeed, it was McIlroy who publicly recommended a few weeks ago that American Scheffler might benefit from a change in putter if he was going to narrow the massive discrepancy between his otherworldly ballstriking and his work on the greens, which has ranked among the worst on the PGA Tour for the past year.

The problem for McIlroy and the rest of golf is that Scheffler did make the equipment change and the impact has been dramatic — his five-shot victory at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill last week was ominous for its message that Scheffler with a hot-putter might just be unplayable.

Whether it was McIlroy’s advice that swung it is open to debate, but with tongue in cheek ahead of today’s first round at the Players Championship, he appears to be getting out of the business of giving tips to his closest rivals.

‘I’m not going to give him any more advice, that’s for sure,’ said the Northern Irishman. ‘Scottie has had enough criticism about his putting — you guys talk about it enough. I was asked the question and it was me basically trying to talk about myself more than talk about Scottie. It was like, “oK, when I putted with a blade, I struggled. When I went to the Spider, I found a little more success and I was a little more consistent”. I didn’t know he was going to put it straight in the bag and win by five!’

A month out from the Masters, the hopes of the field might now rely on Scheffler’s improvement proving to be short-lived.

As for McIlroy, now in his 10th year since his fourth of four majors, the prognosis is rather less optimistic, given he has gone 66-24-21-21 in his finishes since winning the Dubai Desert Classic in January.

His driving and putting are on song but his irons have developed an uncharacteristic habit of pulling left.

He arrived at Sawgrass this week accepting he needs a good showing, as well as admitting his growing impatience at his major drought. ‘It has (built up in his mind), but then at the same time, I look at my record in the majors over the last couple of years, and I’ve definitely started to perform,’ he said.

‘Look, I’m under no illusion that the clock is ticking and it has been 10 years since I’ve won one of them. I just need to keep putting myself in those positions, and sooner or later it’s going to happen.’