Can McIlroy get out of neutral at Carnoustie?
STUCK IN NEUTRAL ...but hoping to halt his winless Major run on his return to Carnoustie, the course introduced himself on in 2007
THE gloomy skies rumbled overhead on a hot August night in Kentucky as Rory McIlroy looked breezily to the future. ‘The next two realistic goals are the career Grand Slam and trying to become the most successful European player ever,’ he said.
He went on to say how pleased he was to have ‘drawn level’ on four majors ‘with Ernie Els, Vijay Singh and Raymond Floyd’ and that ‘getting to the Seve [Ballesteros] mark would be huge’ as ‘I could turn my attention to catching [Nick] Faldo.’
The small knot of British and Irish journalists in Valhalla for the 2014 US PGA Championship nodded approvingly. ‘The Wee Ice Mon’ from Northern Ireland was entitled to dream.
In the space of three weeks, he scooped The Open, the WGC Bridgestone Invitational and the US PGA at Valhalla. He won €3.8m in prize money and doubled his major tally from two to four.
He also become the first European to win three different majors since Tommy Armour and the youngest to do so since Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods.
To paraphrase Falstaff, the world was his oyster. And now? In terms of goals, things have not accelerated as McIlroy intended.
The career Grand Slam continues to prove elusive. Major-wise, he is stuck in neutral heading into this week’s Open at Carnoustie, where he played his first major and pocketed the gold medal for the top amateur as an 18-year-old in 2007, the year Pádraig Harrington claimed outright honours.
This will be his 14th major since Valhalla and he has yet to tag Seve Ballesteros, let alone Nick Faldo. As a comparison, Nicklaus went 12 majors without a win between the 1967 US Open and the 1970 Open, while Woods was winless in 10 majors from the 2002 US Open until the 2005 Masters.
Nicklaus was 30 when he ended his drought, Woods 29, which is the same age as McIlroy is now, so it’s not like Father Time is tapping on his shoulder.
But there are worries about the way his major tally has stalled since he eye-balled Phil Mickelson, Henrik Stenson and Rickie Fowler down the stretch in Kentucky.
Because back then, his all-round game was a match for anyone. He drove the ball further than most, and straighter; his distance control with his irons was immaculate, he was brilliant from bunkers (he still is) and he got the job done with the blade. At Hoylake, where he held off Sergio Garcia and Fowler to ignite that stunning summer run, he took 110 putts (averaging 27.5 putts per round) to tie fourth in the field. At Valhalla, he needed just 27 putts in the first 36 holes. Most recently, at Ballyliffin he laboured to 123 putts and turned for assistance of Floridabased putting guru, Brad Faxon. The County Down man joked at the Irish Open how he’d win every week if he could average 25 putts per round but averaging 30 won’t be good enough to win at baked-out Carnoustie.
Around the greens at Ballyliffin, his action was hesitant and jagged. He wasn’t just reading putts poorly, he was looking up after the ball too quickly for comfort.
In the second round, he hit every green in regulation and made just two short-range putts.
Midway through the Saturday, when on the fringe of contention at three under par, he missed three putts in a row from inside eight feet. Where once he was assured, he looked jittery, even if he insisted his Sunday stroke was better after consultation with Faxon.
McIlroy has said he’d rather be a better ball striker and indifferent putter than the other way around, but it has to be bugging him that so many putts are staying above ground.
The old saying that pros drive for show and putt for dough is one he is tired of hearing.
He certainly doesn’t need the dough, but he does need to find a way of coaxing the ball underground, especially from inside 10 feet if he’s to contend this week.
His PGA Tour putting stats paint a grim picture. He is 113th in strokes gained putting while he languishes in 120th place for holing out from seven to eight feet and 141st from eight to nine feet. He was plum last in putting at the Travelers Championship last month when he finished 12th. Should he shave those putting numbers down in his 10th Open this week, there would be grounds for optimism.
For starters, in general play, he has performed decently this season. He has won on the PGA Tour win, taking just 100 putts at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, was second at the BMW PGA Championship and was also in the last group alongside Patrick Reed on Sunday at the Masters..
Furthermore, his health is as robust as it’s been for some time.
He missed the 2015 Open at St Andrews with ankle damage and was rarely firing on all cylinders in 2017 because of on-going rib issues. This year, he is as wiry as a butcher’s dog.
A third plus is his Open record, which is as robust as any of the contenders, Woods excluded.
Since his pillar-to-post win at Hoylake, where he sprang from the traps like Mick The Miller and was never headed, he has tied fifth at Troon (2016) and tied fourth at Birkdale (2017).
But for a wretched start 12 months ago, when he needed a kick up the backside to get going from caddie JP Fitzgerald – sacked soon after – he would have been in the Sunday mix alongside Jordan Spieth and Matt Kuchar.
In his hour of glory at Valhalla, McIlroy quipped to journalists, ‘I’m not sure if I’ll ever have another summer as good as this again.’