Mcilroy tries to find his game again
The world’s No. 1-ranked golfer believes he’s ready to start playing up to that status again.
It’s not that Rory Mcilroy is consumed with his ranking. The 31-yearold from Northern Ireland had five straight top-five finishes at the end of 2019 and start of 2020 to regain the top ranking. But that was before the pandemic. It seems, like so much else, as if it were from another era.
Mcilroy has played in three tournaments since the PGA Tour resumed last month, and the results haven’t been anything special. His best finish was a tie for 11th at the Travelers Championship in late June after shooting an opening-round 63.
“Since I started back, obviously the rankings have been frozen, and look, it’s a different year,” Mcilroy said Wednesday as he prepared for the Memorial Tournament. “This might sound a little bad, but looking back on the first three events that I played, two of the courses I hadn’t played before or hadn’t played in a very long time.
“I sort of treated them as sort of dipping my toes back in the water again and seeing how things were and how things felt in terms of no crowds and how different it was.”
Mcilroy considered playing the Workday Charity Open last week at Muirfield Village Golf Club, but decided instead to work with his coach, Michael Bannon. They hadn’t seen each other in person since February. Mcilroy is happy with the results that have come from their tinkering with his swing.
Now he wants to put everything together at the Memorial.
“Looking back now, it was a great three weeks’ learning experience just knowing what I know now going forward,” Mcilroy said. “And look, this is a huge event. I saw a stat yesterday that this field is stronger than the last eight Masters tournaments in terms of strength of field, so there’s a lot of obviously world ranking points, and there’s a lot to be focused on this week.”
Despite his ranking, Mcilroy has been overshadowed heading into the Memorial. Most of the buzz centers on five-time Memorial champion Tiger Woods’ return to the tour for the first time since the pandemic hit and on 2018 Memorial champ Bryson De
Chambeau, whose reworked body and game have been the talk of the sport.
And then there are the four golfers — Webb Simpson, Justin Thomas, Jon Rahm and Dustin Johnson — who have a chance this week to wrest the top ranking from Mcilroy.
“The ranking, I’m not even thinking about,” he said. “I’m just trying to play well.”
This will be Mcilroy’s ninth Memorial. He has four top-10 finishes, with the best a tie for fourth in 2016.
No British Open defense for Lowry
In a normal year, Shane Lowry would be spending this week defending his 2019 British Open championship.
The global pandemic forced the cancellation of this year’s British Open at Royal St. George’s, so Lowry finds himself at the Memorial Tournament instead.
“I wouldn’t say it’s bittersweet, but it is strange, like I should be in St. George’s today, probably sitting in the pressroom there as defending champion and wondering how I’m going to go out and tackle that golf course as opposed to being here in Ohio. It’s just very strange times for us at the minute, isn’t it?”
Lowry played the Workday Charity Open, finishing tied for 39th at 4 under.
Charity luncheon raises $1.45M
The annual pre-memorial Legends Luncheon had to be held virtually this year because of the pandemic, but it still raised $1.45 million for charity, tied for the most in its nine-year history. The Nicklaus Children’s Health Care Foundation and Nationwide Children’s Hospital alliance are the beneficiaries. brabinowitz@dispatch.com @brdispatch