Golf Live: Rory McIlroy begins a busy stretch of four straight tournaments this week at The Memorial, seeking for indications of improvement ahead of a hectic summer schedule.
McIlroy started the year as the world’s top player after winning the PGA Tour and DP World Tour season-long rankings the year before. He then won the Hero Dubai Desert Classic to kick off 2023 before slipping in form and performance in recent months.
As problems began to surface, the 33-year-old lost the top place when Scottie Scheffler successfully defended his WM Phoenix Open crown and went further behind when Jon Rahm won the Genesis Invitational a week later. McIlroy finished outside of the top-25 in both competitions.
When McIlroy advanced to the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play semifinals, he showed observable gains in both areas after struggling with a substitute driver at Riviera and switching putters following an early departure at The Players.
His second missed cut in three years at Augusta National put a stop to his effort to complete the career Grand Slam. McIlroy subsequently skipped the RBC Heritage in preparation for a poor showing at the Wells Fargo Championship. He entered The Masters as the pre-tournament favourite.
Although McIlroy had minimal expectations going into the PGA Championship, his tied-seventh-place finish—while far from his best—gave him enough to be happy about as the season enters a vital phase.
“I feel like I need my best stuff to win, but you know, I don’t need my best stuff to compete and hang in there,” McIlroy said following the second major of the year. ‘I need to be better.’
The 34-year-old’s next appearance will be at the RBC Canadian Open, where McIlroy, who won by a dominating seven strokes in 2019 and successfully defended his title the year before, will attempt a historic third straight triumph.
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