KEEP IT SIMPLE, RORY
Swing guru Harmon tells Mcilroy to ignore Bryson
RORY MCILROY needs to get back to basics and rediscover the old swing that won him four Major titles, according to Butch Harmon. And the American instructor (right) says straight-talking Yorkshireman Pete Cowen is the ideal coach to help.
Mcilroy will make his seventh attempt to complete his Grand
Slam at the Masters this week. But the Northern
Irishman, who last won a
Major at the 2014 US PGA, has slipped down to world No.11 after admitting he was chasing extra yardage in pursuit of big-hitting Bryson Dechambeau.
He has started working with Cowen before the first Major of the year starts on Thursday.
And Harmon, the godfather of the golf swing, claims Cowen will help Mcilroy, 31, to simplify his approach. “He needs to stop over-analysing and just get back to playing golf,” said the Sky Sports golf expert.
“He just needs to go back to the basic fundamentals, to what made him so good in the past.
Chasing Dechambeau distance-wise was 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 get caught up in. “That 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 (Mcilroy and Cowen).
But he needs to get him back to a more consistent way of playing and to get his confidence back.”
Harmon, 77, whose father Claude won the Masters in 1948, insists length off the tee is not the key. “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.
“I don’t think Dechambeau has an advantage there.”