PGA Championship: In an effort to recover from his Master’s failure at the PGA Championship, Rory McIlroy maintains he is making “good strides” in his game and is placing “less expectations” on himself.
The Northern Irishman led the season-long standings on the PGA Tour and DP World Tour last year, finished no worse than ninth in all four majors, and began this season with victory at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic before a notable decline in form in recent months.
McIlroy failed to make the cut at The Players, had his attempt to complete the career Grand Slam come to an abrupt stop at The Masters, and skipped the RBC Heritage the following week in order to concentrate on his “mental and emotional wellbeing.”
With McIlroy still processing his poor start to the major season, the 33-year-old battled to a tied-47th finish on his return to competition at the Wells Fargo Championship, a contest he had previously won three times.
In his pre-tournament news conference, McIlroy stated that “golf is golf, it happens, and you’re going to have bad days.” Actually, it wasn’t Augusta’s performance that was difficult to move past; rather, it was the mental side, the deflating of it, and sort of attempting to get your head in the right position to start moving forward again.
“I believe I am near. Even from Quail Hollow a few weeks ago, I believe I’ve come a long way. I’m noticing some improvements, such as better starting positions and unquestionably better golf strokes. Having a more predictable stroke pattern and being a little more certain of where I’m going to start the ball.
“Look, we’ll go outside and explore and have some fun. I still think I’m one of the top players in the world, and I can play well enough to have a shot of winning this week if I can execute the way I feel like I can.”
Lower expectations for McIlroy
In order to be ready for this week’s challenge in Rochester, McIlroy spent last week training with longtime instructor Michael Bannon in Florida. The two-time PGA Championship winner has a distinct strategy for major tournaments.
“You’re always going to have your ups and downs in the game,” McIlroy continued. “I need to go out there and hit solid golf shots while still showing respect for the course and playing the game properly.
“No, I don’t need to make any significant changes. The past few weeks, I’ve been making some progress with my swing in an effort to get it back in line.”
Less expectations are what McIlroy is working on psychologically, he added. Just sort of trying to be in a good space with accepting what happens and not getting ahead of myself or overthinking things.
“I’m just trying to go out there and play a good first hole of the competition, and then once I do that, try to play a good second hole and just sort of go from there,” the golfer said.
“I still consider my career to be successful even if I never again win a competition. I still consider myself to be successful as I stand here. it is what it is defined as.”
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