DUBLIN, Ohio — If I had a nickel for every time I heard “Rory McIlroy is hard to beat when he is at the top of his game,” I wouldn’t be writing about Rory McIlroy. I’d be counting my millions while sipping a cocktail in the tropics.
McIlroy is indeed a beast when his game is on form. The problem confronting the long-hitting 34-year-old is the sixth word in the previous sentence.
When.
Or as it relates specifically to the issue of McIlroy’s nine-year major championship victory drought: When?
Golf is a fickle, frustrating game. On the first hole, your 5-iron feels like Excalibur, slicing through the air to send a Titleist two feet from the pin. On the second hole, using the same club, it’s the Titleist that slices … into the woods.
The best players in the world are more consistently excellent than high-handicappers, but no less prone to periods of golf putrefaction. They experience ups and downs and periods of drought like the rest of us. The biggest difference, besides doing their pouting while flying by private jet instead of while drinking a sad trombone beer on the back porch of the local muni, is expectations. We expect to card a par or two over 18 holes. They expect to collect a major or two over their career.
Which brings us back to McIlroy. It remains a puzzler why the Northern Irishman, now fully acclimated to living in southern Florida, cannot seem to win a fifth. His last major came in 2014 at the PGA Championship.
For a player whose swing comes close to perfection and whose short game is top shelf when it is on, failing to come away with a major trophy for almost a decade is akin to Rafael Nadal constantly coming up short in the tennis Grand Slam. It should not happen, and in Nadal’s case has not happened.
No one can explain it, not even McIlroy. Though he tries. Ahead of the Memorial Tournament on Wednesday, the No. 3 golfer in the world addressed the state of his game, explaining how three weeks ago at the PGA Championship his swing felt more uncomfortable than it has in a long time. Yet he still tied for seventh, a testament to his talent.
Rory McIlroy signs autographs after the Workday Golden Bear Pro-Am ahead of the 2023 Memorial Tournament at Muirlfield Village Golf Club. (Photo: Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch)
Swing “feels” come and go, but that cannot explain why McIlroy keeps coming up short in majors; sometimes just short. He was in the hunt at the 2022 British Open, leading at St. Andrews entering the final…
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