Rory Mcllroy has come out and said that he has found it rather difficult to focus without fans in the 3 tournaments he has been a part of post-lockdown. The golfer has not managed a top-10 finish in any of the three tournaments and has struggled to get in the tournament mindset without fans watching. But Mcllroy has said that he hopes to put that right comes the Memorial tournament this week. The field for the tournament is the strongest we have seen post lockdown.
Mcllroy who took a couple of weeks off during which he reunited with his swing coach Michael Bannan said, “I haven’t necessarily been in contention the last few times that we’ve played without fans, but if anything I’ve realised personally that it’s very hard for me to keep focus out here. I feel like when there’s fans and there’s that energy and the atmosphere, it’s easy to get into that mindset that you need to get into, right, like that’s what we’re used to, that’s what we do.”
He went on to add’, “The first three weeks that I played, Colonial, Hilton Head, Travelers, looking back on them, they were three really good weeks just to get a feel for what it was going to be like, and now someone like Tiger hasn’t experienced that yet. Maybe he’s going to find it a little weird going out there here and not having anyone, especially with the number of crowds that he has to deal with all the time when he plays. So it was a good look at what we were all going to expect going forward.”
Mcllroy said it was a shame that the playoff between Collin Morikawa and Justin Thomas at Muirfield Village last week didn’t have spectators to witness the cliff hanger. Colin held out a 25 feet birdie putt to extend the contest after his opponent held out a 50feet putt for birdie. “I thought it was some of the most compelling TV I’ve watched all year, it was pretty cool to watch,” added McIlroy. “That moment on the 18th green when they both made those birdie putts would have been way better with fans, but it was still pretty cool to watch.
