Rory McIlroy making up for lost time........................................
Golfer using next fewweeks of play to fine-tune game
Forgive Rory McIlroy if he feels like he’s stuck in a time warp.
He begins the new 2015-16 wraparound PGA Tour season Thursday in the Frys.com Open at Silverado Resort. Except he feels like his season started in the PGA Championship two months ago. And he still has the European Tour’s season to finish with three starts in the next six weeks.
He has landed at 119 airports and will have spent more than 290 days on the road when his stay in California’s wine country ends.
His year started to go haywire when he tore ligaments in his left ankle July 4 while playing soccer with friends, leading to a forced leave of absence to recover. He had been playing superb golf heading into the summer— three worldwide wins — but then was sidelined and missed the British Open on the Old Course in St Andrews, Scotland, and had to restart his campaign in the PGA Championship in August.
“This is sort of a continuation of that,” McIlroy said Wednesday. “Even though it’s the new PGA Tour season, I feel like I’m in the middle of a nice little run to the end of the year. I guess for a lot of guys, even the guys that played a full PGA Tour schedule last season and then played The Presidents Cup last week and they’re coming here, it’s a lot of golf. But as I said, I haven’t played asmuch as those guys, so I’m happy to be playing and happy to play quite a bit until the end of the year.”
There was a time this year when McIlroy owned the narrative in men’s golf, the clear No. 1 and favorite every week he put a peg into the ground. Then along came world No. 1 Jordan Spieth and his wins in the first two majors, and then came No. 2 Jason Day and his methodical march to the winner’s circle while McIlroy rehabbed and started from scratch in the last major of the sea- son. McIlroy’s motivation level isn’t higher because of what Spieth and Day have done. Instead, he’s motivated because he’s dropped to No. 3 in the world and he’s no longer the top dog.
“Seeing them win five times a year and winning majors, it’s something I feel like I’ve done before and feel like I can do again,” the four-time major winner said. “So there’s always motivation there whether guys are doing well or not. I find myself in a position where I’m trying to get my game back to the level it needs to be.
“I feel like I’ve played OK. I’ve won three times (in 2015), but those tourna- ments haven’t been majors. … I would say it was a good season; it wasn’t a great season. I feel like I’m at a point inmy career where a great season is defined by major championships. Major championship performances this year were solid but not what I wanted them to be. So it was a lost year in the fact that I didn’t win amajor.”
McIlroy, who will get six to eight weeks off after playing in Dubai in November, went to World Cup rugby matches during his mini-vacation after playing in The Tour Championship by Coca-Cola in Atlanta, relaxed and practiced. He does see the light at the end of this year’s tunnel, but he won’t waste the time getting there. As he moves forward, he’ll work on the strengths of his game — driving, ball-striking and hitting fairways and greens — and the weaknesses — scrambling and putting. And he’s already eying 2016. “My game feels in good shape,” he said. “I needed to work on a couple things coming out of Atlanta and feel like I’ve addressed those obvious the past couple weeks. It’ll be nice to try and put them into play. ...
“I’m ready to get back into play and to compete again. Since I’ve come back from the injury, I’ve had a couple good finishes but not really been in contention. So I want to get back in contention, have chances to win golf tournaments. That’s really my focus until the end of the year.”