Rory: "It's sort of like a heavyweight boxer losing a world title and it's a journey to get that title back"
Rory McIlroy plays a shot to the fifth green during the final round at the 2022 U.S. Open at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass. on Sunday, June 19, 2022. (Jeff Haynes/USGA)
Rory McIlroy believes getting back to world number one this week would feel as good as a heavyweight boxer winning back a lost world title.
The Holywood star, who last night dismissed Phil Mickelson’s “bold” claim that LIV Golf is trending up and the PGA Tour trending down as out of step with all logic, defends the CJ Cup in South Carolina seeking a top two finish that could see him regain the world No 1 spot for the first time in over two year.
This week’s PGA Tour start and next month’s season-ending DP World Tour Championship in Dubai offer FedEx Cup holder McIlroy the chance to end 2022 as world number one and the leading player on both sides of the pond.
“Yeah, two events left and still I feel like I have a little bit to play for,” said McIlroy, who will go back to number one if he wins this week and Scottie Scheffler doesn't finish solo second or in a two-way tie for second.
He would also overtake Scheffler if he finishes solo second and the Masters champion finishes worse than solo 34th.
“I've put myself in a nice position to try to get back to No. 1 in the world and trying to finish off the European Tour title over there, too. Still plenty of motivation this time of the year.”
While he’s been waiting eight years for that elusive fifth major win, getting back to world number one shows McIlroy he’s on the right track again after falling to 16th last year before rebounding from a poor Ryder Cup with victory in the CJ Cup in Las Vegas.
I got to No 1 in the world after I won the Honda Classic in 2012," McIlroy said. "It had been a goal of mine for maybe six months up until that point but I remember waking up the next morning and being like, is this it?
"You work towards a goal for so long and then you wake up the next day and you don't feel any different after having achieved it, so I think then it's a matter of having to reframe your goals and reframe what success looks like.
"I think that's one of the great things about this game, no matter how much you've achieved or how much success you've had, you always want to do something else, there's always something else to do. I guess the cool thing about it is you get to No 1 and it feels great in the moment, and the bad thing is you maybe have to work harder to stay there.
"I think if I get back to No 1 this week it's my ninth time. It sort of illustrates you can have your runs and you can stay there, but I think the cool part is the journey and the journey getting back there.
“I guess that's where I say like the cool thing about it is you get to No. 1 and it feels great in the moment, and the bad thing is you almost got to work just -- well, not work just as hard, maybe work harder to stay there.
"It's sort of like a heavyweight boxer losing a world title and it's a journey to get that title back. I feel like that's the cool part of it and that's the journey that I've sort of been through over the past 12 months.”
McIlroy is paired with Tom Kim and Rickie Fowler for his first visit to Congaree but he does not agree with Phil Mickelson that the PGA Tour is trending downwards and LIV Golf upwards.
“We’re playing these events, we're PGA Tour members, we're sticking to the system that has traditionally been there.
“The guys that have gone over to LIV, they're the ones that have made the disruption, they're the ones that have sort of put the golf world in flux right now.
“I guess for them to be talking the way they are, it's bold and I think there's a ton of propaganda being used and all sorts of stuff. I certainly don't see the PGA Tour trending downward at all.”
Mickelson said at the LIV Invitational in Jeddah last week that while the best players gravitated to the PGA Tour in the past, momentum has now shifted to LIV Golf.
“I see LIV Golf trending upwards, I see the PGA TOUR trending downwards and I love the side that I'm on,” Mickelson said.
McIlroy, the unofficial PGA Tour spokesman, could only disagree.
“All the talent, most, 95 per cent of the talent is here,” McIlroy said at Congaree, where six of the world’s top 10 and 30 of the top 50, including 21st-ranked Shane Lowry and 46th-ranked Séamus Power are in action. “You've got people like Tom Kim coming through who that's the future of our game.
“I don't agree with what Phil said last week. I understand why he said it because of the position he is in, but I don't think anyone that takes a logical view of the game of golf can agree with what he said.”
On the DP World Tour, Jonathan Caldwell and Cormac Sharvin play the Mallorca Golf Open where second-ranked Ryan Fox continues his quest to catch McIlroy and deny him his fourth DP World Tour Rankings win.
“I want to give those guys a run,” the New Zealander said of McIlroy and second-ranked Matt Fitzpatrick. “I’ve got to do something pretty impressive at the back end of the year to get past Rory and Fitz, but stranger things have happened.”
Meanwhile, Leona Maguire and Stephanie Meadow are competing in the LPGA’s BMW Ladies Open at Oak Valley in South Korea.
