500 days of waiting can push Rory back to best
IT’S been 500 days since Rory McIlroy last toasted a victory.
It was November 3, 2019, when the Northern Irishman came from two shots behind to birdie the first extra hole and defeat Xander Schauffele in a play-off to lift the WGCHSBC Champions title.
That win in Shanghai made it four victories in a season for McIlroy having captured The Players, the Canadian Open and the Tour Championship.
McIlroy had won the 2019 Players on St Patrick’s Day and in triumphing eight months later in Shanghai, he secured a 27th pro career victory.
At the time, he singled out what now seems like a factor in this downturn as the key to that win.
He said: “I try 100 per cent over every shot, I think because I realise I don’t have as much time left as I used to when I was 20.”
In the intervening 16-months, and across 25 events, McIlroy’s best finishes were two third places and nine top-10s.
He has only missed two halfway cuts since his Shanghai success – the first arriving last month at the Genesis Invitational and the second just last week at The Players.
Over two days in Florida, he posted his equal poorest two rounds in 193 Tour events, leaving his Far East success seeming ever more distant.
Ahead of next week’s WGC-Dell Match-Play in Texas, a McIlroy win would be a fifth time in his career he’s missed a halfway cut and celebrated in his next tournament with a victory.
And given McIlroy’s enormous talent you cannot write off him bouncing back with a win in Austin, in what will be a last hit out before the Masters in April.
One thing is certain. McIlroy will definitely not be spending St Paddy’s Day with his feet-up downing a few pints of Guinness.