RORY HITS A BRICK WALL
McIlroy admits his swing fell apart as he tried to match DeChambeau’s giant drives
BRYSON DECHAMBEAU warned his mission to hit longer is not to be taken lightly after Rory McIlroy revealed he has lost his swing trying to chase the US Open champion.
The 5ft 9in Ulsterman led the PGA Tour driving stats in 2017 and 2018 and has been in the top four in each of the last five years.
But DeChambeau returned from lockdown last year with a new muscle-bound physique and increased swing speed to leave him miles behind.
McIlroy admitted he tried to copy the blueprint after the American’s Winged Foot win last September by pushing his swing to the limit. And, after missing the cut at the Players
Championship just a month before the Masters, he claimed he had not yet recovered.
Asked about McIlroy’s comments, DeChambeau said: “I appreciate it, first off. I wasn’t trying to influence anybody. I was just trying to play my own game and hit it as far as I possibly could. I knew there was going to be an effect. I didn’t know what it would be or who would be affected by it, but golf is a weird game.
“This journey that I’m on is not taken lightly. I’ve tried to figure out a bunch of different variables that you have to have in order to hit it straight and hit it really far. I knew that there would be some people who would try similar, some people who it would potentially not work for, and some people it might help. But I do appreciate Rory’s comments.”
After rounds of 79 and 75 at
Sawgrass, former world No.1 McIlroy said his “swing issues” dated back to last October.
“I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t anything to do with what Bryson did at the US Open,” he said. “A lot of people saw that and were like ‘Whoa!’ If this is the way they’re going to set golf courses up in the future, it helps. I thought being able to get some more speed would be a good thing. I got there, maybe to the detriment of my swing, so I just need to rein it back a little.”
World No.1 Dustin Johnson has confirmed he will not play in the Olympics this summer. The American, who opted out of the 2016 Games in Rio because of his Zika virus concerns, said: “It’s a lot of travelling at a time when it’s important for me to feel like I’m focusing playing on the PGA Tour.”
Antoine Rozner, who had gone into the final day three shorts off the lead, holed an incredible 60-foot birdie putt on the 72nd hole to win his second European Tour title at the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters.
The Frenchman, who closed with a 67 in Doha to finish on eight under par, said: ”It’s unreal. In my wildest dreams I couldn’t imagine anything like this happening. It’s probably the biggest putt of my career – amazing.”
The win is Rozner’s second in just over three months – he claimed a maiden Tour title before Christmas in Dubai.