BACK TO Swinging changes can help Rory go distance
RORY McILROY needs to get back to basics and rediscover the old swing which won him four Major titles, according to Butch Harmon.
And the American reckons that straight-talking Yorkshireman Pete Cowen is the ideal coach to help him.
McIlroy, 31, will make his seventh attempt to complete his career Grand Slam at the Masters this week.
The Ulsterman last won a Major at the 2014 US PGA and has slipped down to world No.11 after admitting he was chasing extra yardage in pursuit of big-hitting Bryson DeChambeau.
He has now started working with Englishman Cowen before the first Major of the year.
And Harmon, the Godfather of the golf swing, claims the coach will help McIlroy simplify his approach to getting the little white ball in the hole.
“He 100 per cent needs to stop over-analysing and just get back to playing golf,” said the Sky Sports Golf expert (right).
“He just needs to go back to the basic fundamentals, to what made him so good in the past.
“Chasing DeChambeau distancewise was so wrong, because he’s already one of the longest hitters in the game, a beautiful driver with a flowing swing so I was shocked he would even go down that road. I think Rory got caught up in something he didn’t need to.
“It kind of got in his head and affected his golf swing. That hurt him and he needed someone to point him in the right direction.
“I like the marriage of the two of them and I think we saw him play a little more under control already at the Match Play. The difficulty will be coming into a Major championship with some new swing thoughts.
“But he needs to get him back to a more consistent way of playing and to get his confidence back.
“Once you lose that confidence in what you’re doing it’s hard to compete at this level. It’s only going to take one really good round for Rory McIlroy to go out and start playing solidly again and all of a sudden the old Rory will come back.”
The 5’ 9” Northern Irishman led the PGA Tour driving stats in 2017 and 2018 – and has been in the top four in each of the last five years.
He is third in this season’s distance stats, averaging less than two yards behind DeChambeau off the tee.
“I was a bit surprised he said what he did about trying to catch Bryson but that’s why we love Rory,” Harmon added.
“He’s brutally honest and will tell you how he’s thinking, which is refreshing in this day and age because half the time they’re just telling you bulls**t. “It seems to be a trend going around trying to achieve more distance. But if you look at the guys at the top of the world rankings – Dustin Johnson, Jon Rahm and Justin Thomas – they are long hitters but they are not trying to jump out of their shoes.
“They are just trying to play their game. And I think Rory’s realised that is what he needs to do.” Harmon, whose father Claude won the Masters in 1948, insisted length off the tee is not the key at Augusta National. “Everybody gets wrapped up with distance at Augusta but it is a second-shot course and you have to putt well on the brutal greens,” he said.