McIlroy loses the fear factor as majors slip by
IN the words of Serena Williams, a champion is defined not by their wins but by how they recover when they fall. It’s a thought Rory McIlroy may cling to for motivation as he reflects on another lost year. While it is only August and the hay is not yet saved, McIlroy’s season is effectively over, for all that he now intends to defend his FedEx Cup title, with pal Harry Diamond on his bag.
The majors have come and gone, The Players’ too, and the Irish Open, which he hosts. As a blessing, there are no Olympic Games hurdles to dodge this summer.
With on-going rib issues, there seems little to be gained by playing on but McIlroy, a week after hinting at a complete shut-down for the season, has shifted his position – a clear sign of his inner stubbornness.
Rather than rest, he will tee off in the first of four play-offs, the Northern Trust Open next Thursday, acknowledging he’s in a Catch 22 situation.
A part of him wants to play, because that’s what he enjoys doing most, but he knows he’s not 100 per cent fit.
By the standards of most Tour professionals, McIlroy’s CV in 2017 looks half decent – fourth in The Open, seventh in the Masters, 22nd in the PGA, and fifth and seventh in two WGC events.
But McIlroy has always operated off a different benchmark and he knows he has fallen, if nowhere near the depths of Tiger Woods, but from the peak he occupied three years ago as the world’s best golfer.
When he held the Wanamaker Trophy aloft in thundery Kentucky skies on the night of August 10, 2014, McIlroy spoke optimistically of eclipsing the major wins of Seve Ballesteros (five) and Nick Faldo (six).
No one dared suggest otherwise, for there was nothing visible in his path to block him.
After all, McIlroy had just won The Open on a hardened Hoylake links and the USPGA in a Valhalla bog. He was the young man for all seasons.
For McIlroy, majors will ultimately identify his ranking in the sport’s hierarchy, not the 200 million greenbacks in the bank, which he needlessly tweeted about in a social media spat with Steve Elkington in June.
At the moment, McIlroy is on a par with Ernie Els, who had to contend with Woods in his prime, and Ray Floyd, who muscled in on the majors act when Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Lee Trevino weren’t looking.
It was Els who observed at the Irish Open in 2015 that McIlroy could hit Tiger’s 14-major mark by the time he turned 40. In reply, McIlroy quipped about hoping to get there before that landmark.
It’s not something he would joke about now as he remains stuck on four wins, still adrift of Ballesteros and Faldo.
On his wheel is Jordan Spieth (three), while Jason Day, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and Justin Thomas have joined the major roll of honour, and won’t be going away.
The sport has moved on since the summer of 2014 with nine first-time major winners, but McIlroy has stood still. And he knows it.
What’s been to blame? A freak ankle injury playing indoor football in June 2015 didn’t help, while a recurring rib injury problem since January proved restricting at all four majors. Other factors have been at play. Since victory at Valhalla, there’s been a public split with his management team a change of clubs, and most recently, the dismissal of his loyal caddie after nine years.
There have also been technical issues, chiefly his indifferent short iron approach play and a tendency to miss more putts between six and eight feet than his rivals.
All these points have been highlighted simply because McIlroy has not added to his major tally since 2014. Nor has he looked like doing so, for there have been no near-misses.
Unlike his hero Nicklaus who had 14 second-place finishes in majors, McIlroy has yet to have one. The gap of 12 majors since Valhalla is significant as it mirrors the barren run of Nicklaus, which stretched from the 1967 US Open to the 1970 Open at St Andrews.
Nicklaus won his seventh major at 27 and his eighth at 30; in comparison, McIlroy won his fourth at 25 and will be almost 29 when he tries to win a fifth, and complete the career Grand Slam, in the Masters next April.
Perhaps the Nicklaus ‘drought’ which McIlroy has referred to in recent interviews, might act as a spur.
The challenge for McIlroy is to regain full fitness, form and rekindle the fire in his belly which made him such a fierce competitor between 2011 and 2014, almost Tiger-like. He still hits the ball miles, mostly straight, is the best bunker player on Tour, and when his putter is hot, he is almost unstoppable.
But he is not the tour de force he was in 2014 and Spieth, Thomas and Co sense it. They will not fear a wounded McIlroy in the FedEx Cup.
The challenge is to regain fitness, form and the fire in his belly