MCILROY, SPIETH TRAVERSE ROUGH PATCHES
Rory McIlroy is looking for rhythm.
Jordan Spieth is looking to get his putter going.
The two will do so starting Thursday in the Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Conn. For the first time, two of the game’s biggest names and best players have traveled to the Travelers, adding to the star power that includes Jason Day, Patrick Reed, Justin Thomas and Bubba Watson.
McIlroy and Spieth said it was a no-brainer to add the Travelers to their schedule to get in compliance with the PGA Tour’s new rule requiring members who didn’t make 25 starts the previous season to add an event they hadn’t played in the last four years. Word of mouth did the trick for the Travelers.
“I’ve watched it a bunch on TV because I’ve usually had the week off after the U.S. Open, and everyone I talk to enjoys the event. It’s an enjoyable golf course, it’s not set up super hard and scores are pretty low,” said McIlroy, 28, a four-time major champion who is ranked No. 3 in the world. “Organizers can’t do enough for the players. It’s a fun week, a touch of decompression after a U.S. Open that might not have been so fun. You’re not as stressed out, and you can make some birdies.”
The U.S. Open wasn’t fun for McIlroy last week at Erin Hills in Wisconsin. He was coming off a layoff to heal a rib for the third time this season. The start-and-stop rhythm to his year, which began when he suffered a stress fracture when he finished second in the South African Open in January, caught up to him. His timing was off, and he missed the cut
in the U.S. Open after rounds of 78-71.
He has made seven starts this year, and the winner of 13 Tour titles hasn’t won since last year’s Tour Championship, an extensive drought for a player of his caliber. But he did finish strong in the U.S. Open, making four birdies in his last six holes. And he has been to River Highlands and loves the area. McIlroy, who has four top-10s this season, practiced at the course during Tour starts in 2012-13.
“My transition was just very quick,” McIlroy said at Erin Hills. “At this point in time, I just need to play a round of golf. I need to get a flow going.”
That’s his hope starting with the Travelers, which will be the second of seven tournaments he’ll play in nine weeks.
Spieth, the world No. 6 and winner of the 2015 Masters and U.S. Open, won his ninth Tour title in February in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in California. Every part of his game was on point, and he finished four shots clear of the field at 19 under.
Since then, he has one top-10, a tie for second in the Dean & DeLuca Invitational at Colonial, in 10 individual starts. The reason? The shortest club in his bag. After finishing in a tie for 35th in the U.S. Open, he was asked what grade he’d give himself for the year.
“Probably a B right now,” said Spieth, 23. “Yeah, I mean, it gets to an A, A+ with the putter (working). I feel really good about just about everything else. I’ve just got to get on the greens and have that cup start to look a bit bigger.”
Just as he did at Erin Hills, Spieth started working hard on his putting when he got to River Highlands.
“I’m trying to develop a feel that I can use consistently and kind of not have to think about the stroke and setup and instead focus on the line and speed, which I just have not been comfortable doing,” he said. “But it comes from just getting one feeling, knocking it in, with 1,000 putts. Then after that you can go off of it. I just didn’t quite get to that level at the U.S. Open.
“It only takes one or two events in a row before we’re right back on track, and I know that, and that’s what I believe.”
He might be in the ideal place to get back on track. Spieth is an aggressive player by nature, though he certainly is top notch when he has to play more conservatively. But when he’s in attack mode, he’s at his best, and River Highlands doesn’t play well to a cautious approach.
“I’ve watched the exciting last seven holes where anything can happen, and that’s always fun for us,” Spieth said. “When you get opportunities to make birdies or even make a couple eagles on a nine-hole stretch with just hitting good, solid shots, you can come back from anywhere. It’s also a lot more exciting because you have to play aggressive, and I think that that’s something that if I’m forced to do, helps us. Backing off is a little tougher for us because it’s just not as much in my DNA.
“This week, you have to make birdies. You have to convert. You’re going to have plenty of chances. ... You can’t really make too many mistakes here. Bogeys drop you down. So don’t try to force it and just believe that the putter’s going to get there if I give myself enough chances.”