McIlroy welcomes his Bay Hill blues as he seeks redemption at Sawgrass
RORY McIlroy wishes he had the mental skills of Tiger Woods as he looks to put his Arnold Palmer Invitational mini-meltdown behind him with victory in the $20 million Players Championship.
Woods will be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame tonight with his daughter Sam (14) introducing him and McIlroy admits he'd love to have the “head” and the mental game of his golfing hero.
"I think one of his biggest attributes was his head and his mind and how good he was in that regard, and that's something I'm always still trying to work on," said McIlroy, who admitted he did not react well to the change in conditions over the weekend at Bay Hill, where he snapped a club in anger, then slammed the set up of the golf course as “crazy golf” that left him feeling "punch drunk".
"There's certainly things that I'd love to have. I think I've got most of the physical aspects down, but he was certainly head and shoulders above the rest when it came to the mental side of things. That's something I'd love to try to keep improving on and try to incorporate into my own game."
Having stayed up aged seven to watch Woods win the Masters in 1997, McIlroy has been an admirer of everything Woods has done throughout his career.
“I think one of his biggest attributes was his head and his mind and how good he was in that regard, and that’s something I’m always still trying to work on”
"I think his level of detail, I think his creativity, his imagination, his fearlessness to take on shots, just everything," he said of the elements of Woods' game he's tried to copy.
"He was a real student of the game. He really studied everything more than probably anyone would ever know. I think he just immersed himself in golf to try to be the best player he could possibly be. He took that to different levels that had never been seen before.
"Definitely, the golf that he played in the early 2000s is the best the game's ever been played, in my opinion."
With up to three inches of rain forecast this week, McIlroy is licking his lips at the prospect of soft conditions at TPC Sawgrass and the chance to build on the good play he displayed at Bay Hill, where he frustrated his admirers once again by getting to nine-under-par through 27 holes and then imploding when conditions changed.
"I'll try to just be a little more patient and not get as frustrated with things," he said of his goal this week at TPC Sawgrass, where the winner will take home $3.6 million. "I just found it really hard not to last week. You make such a good start in a golf tournament and things turn on you quickly and I just felt it all unravelling for me when I thought I had a really good chance to win the tournament. Yesterday was a good day to regroup."
When a reporter suggested his comments slamming Bay Hill might have been "misconstrued" as complaining when in fact, he was merely describing the conditions, he refused to take the easy way out.
"It wasn't misconstrued, I was definitely complaining," he said, getting some laughs from the media. "Yeah, unless you were out on the golf course, you wouldn't understand in a way. Look, it was the same for everyone.
“I certainly get that. But there was a lot of alcoholic beverages being drunk in the locker room when I went in there on Sunday afternoon by a lot of players, so it wasn't just me out there having a rough time."
McIlroy knows he cannot change his essence, however, and when asked if he'd rather not be boring at times rather than his often volatile self, he said it was only through the tough times that he could learn something useful.
"Not really," he said. "I mean, my record speaks for itself. Everyone has highs. Everyone has lows. But I've basically got a 50 per cent top ten record in my career, and that is a pretty high level of consistency.
"Yes, okay, could I have won more tournaments? Of course, I could have won more tournaments, but so could everyone. Everyone could say that. Sometimes you need the lows to learn about what you need to do to go forward. I've always welcomed those low times because that's where growth comes from. That's where improvement comes from and reassessing where you are.
"I feel like in life you need those low times to sort of figure out, okay, this is where I am. This is what I need to do to go forward, and you just keep trying to go forward."
He remains one of the best drivers of the ball in the game when on top form but believes he has slowly addressed his weaknesses, especially his putting.
“Sometimes you need the lows to learn about what you need to do to go forward”
"I think I've picked away on my weaknesses quite a bit," he said. "I'd say the one big weakness that I had coming out was probably my putting more, but I've been consistently pretty good with my putting now for a few years, I feel.
"Like we're all going to miss putts and we're all going to miss putts that we think we should make and all that, but I think consistency-wise, I've been a lot better.
"Yeah, the strengths are still there. I've always driven the ball well. I've always been able to hit long irons well. In this game, you have to keep your strengths as strong as possible and certainly not neglect your weaknesses, but you just sort of chip away at your weaknesses.
"Everyone's got foundations in their golf game which make them great, and I think I realised that from a pretty young age. So I had to make sure to keep the strengths as strong as possible and then just sort of try to chip away at the rest of the stuff because, if you start to neglect what makes you great, you sort of go nowhere.
"You see these guys that are really, really good players and maybe rely on their wedges and their short game, and then they try to hit the ball longer and they start to really try and work on that.
"Then they sort of neglect their strength a little bit, then they sort of end up in no man's land. I've tried to always, tried to steer away from that because you can sort of lose your identity a little bit when you try to go down that route."
After finishing 13th on one-over at Bay Hill, McIlroy knows he has a chance to get right back on the horse at TPC Sawgrass, where he won The Players Championship with one of the great finishes in 2019.
He's certainly in a better place to last year, when he had just started working with Pete Cowen and opened with a 79 and missed the cut by 10 strokes.
"I didn't know it was 79 last year," he said ruefully. "I tried to forget about it, but thanks for reminding me.
Yeah, I came in here last year not very confident in my golf game. I didn't feel like I was playing well. I sort of had a two-way miss going. I was missing it left, missing it right. So I'm a lot more comfortable with my game coming in this year.
"I don't want to tempt fate, but there would have to be a drastic change in my game from now until Thursday for me to go and shoot 79 in the first round, but it is golf and you never know.
"Yeah, I feel just much more comfortable with where my game is, where my swing is at. Look, it's always important to get off to good starts in golf tournaments, and I obviously didn't do that last year, but in 2019 I did. I got off to a great start the first two days, and that set me up to have a solid weekend and go on and win.
"I'm playing Thursday afternoon and Friday morning. The weather forecast looks like it's going to be the same for everyone, just looks like rain pretty much all day those two days.
"Yeah, just try to handle the conditions as best as we can and try to shoot a couple of solid scores and get through to the weekend and go from there."
The competition will be fierce with Collin Morikawa, Viktor Hovland, Patrick Cantlay and Scottie Scheffler all in with a chance of overtaking Jon Rahm as world number one.
But while McIlroy admits competition is deeper than ever, he's confident in his ability.
"I can't control what those guys do," he said. "All I can do is go out and play the best golf that I can, and if that's good enough to win tournaments, that's great, and if it's not, then you have to try to make improvements and see where you can.
"I still feel like my best golf is more than good enough to win the biggest golf tournaments in the world, so I don't worry about that."
The absence of Phil Mickelson following his comments on LIV Golf Investments, the Saudi-backed Super Golf League and the "obnoxious greed" of the "dictatorship" he sees at the PGA was a hot topic yesterday.
“The PGA TOUR is moving on. We are and we always will be focused on legacy, not leverage.”
"The PGA TOUR is moving on," Monahan said before reporters had a chance to ask him at a 40-minute press conference.
"We have too much momentum and too much to accomplish to be consistently distracted by rumours of other golf leagues and their attempts to disrupt our players, our partners, and most importantly, our fans from enjoying the Tour and the game we all love so much."
He added, pointedly referencing Mickelson's attempts to use the Saudi cash to "leverage" the Tour: "We are and we always will be focused on legacy, not leverage."
Monahan refused to rule out that Mickelson had been suspended or to comment further on the left-hander's controversial remarks.
"He stepped away on his own accord, and he's asked for time," Monahan said, admitting he had not spoken to the Californian. "He's been given that time. We don't comment on disciplinary matters, potential matters or actual matters. But every player is accountable for their actions out here.
"I have not talked to Phil since he made his comments and since he said that he was stepping away. Like I said, I think the ball is in his court."
McIlroy is a Player Director and he's called for the Tour to be more transparent and reveal fines and suspensions.
"I've always felt that a few of the bans or suspensions, I think that should all be announced," McIlroy said. "I think that should be more transparent, and I've always said that.”
The Players Championship, TPC Sawgrass
Thursday tee times (Irish time)
1ST TEE
11:45 Adam Schenk, Kramer Hickok, Lee Hodges
11:56 Charley Hoffman, Harold Varner III, Will Zalatoris
12:07 Kevin Streelman, Maverick McNealy, Roger Sloan
12:18 Sungjae Im, Martin Laird, Richy Werenski
12:29 Cameron Champ, Matt Jones, Francesco Molinari
12:40 Erik van Rooyen, Garrick Higgo, Ryan Palmer
12:51 K.H. Lee, Adam Long, Kevin Tway
13:02 Sebastián Muñoz, Dylan Frittelli, Jimmy Walker
13:13 Joel Dahmen, Brian Gay, Corey Conners
13:24 Lanto Griffin, Gary Woodland, Keith Mitchell
13:35 Ian Poulter, Pat Perez, Jhonattan Vegas
13:46 Henrik Norlander, Hank Lebioda, Taylor Pendrith
16:50 Brian Stuard, Harry Higgs, Brandon Hagy
17:01 Keegan Bradley, Andrew Putnam, Cameron Young
17:12 Russell Henley, Mackenzie Hughes, Thomas Pieters
17:23 Ryan Brehm, Kevin Kisner, Jason Day
17:34 Jordan Spieth, Daniel Berger, Dustin Johnson
17:45 Scottie Scheffler, Brooks Koepka, Xander Schauffele
17:56 Rory McIlroy, Collin Morikawa, Justin Thomas
18:07 Max Homa, Billy Horschel, Justin Rose
18:18 Marc Leishman, J.T. Poston, Zach Johnson
18:29 Si Woo Kim, Matt Kuchar, Henrik Stenson
18:40 Charl Schwartzel, Denny McCarthy, Tyler McCumber
18:51 Brendan Steele, Emiliano Grillo, Matthew NeSmith
10th TEE
11:45 Brian Harman, Russell Knox, Beau Hossler
11:56 Kyle Stanley, Tommy Fleetwood, Wyndham Clark
12:07 Aaron Wise, Doc Redman, Mito Pereira
12:18 Tony Finau, Patrick Reed, Webb Simpson
12:29 Sergio Garcia, Adam Scott, Louis Oosthuizen
12:40 Joaquin Niemann, Hideki Matsuyama, Cameron Smith
12:51 Viktor Hovland, Patrick Cantlay, Jon Rahm
13:02 Sam Burns, Abraham Ancer, Paul Casey
13:13 Tom Hoge, Tyrrell Hatton, Brandt Snedeker
13:24 Lucas Glover, Shane Lowry, Matthew Wolff
13:35 Peter Malnati, Alex Noren, Anirban Lahiri
13:46 Scott Piercy, Nick Watney, Hayden Buckley
16:50 Chris Kirk, Lee Westwood, Matt Fitzpatrick
17:01 Cameron Tringale, Sam Ryder, Matt Wallace
17:12 James Hahn, Chesson Hadley, J.J. Spaun
17:23 Hudson Swafford, Talor Gooch, Jason Kokrak
17:34 Cam Davis, Branden Grace, Carlos Ortiz
17:45 Sepp Straka, Robert Streb, Bubba Watson
17:56 Lucas Herbert, Brendon Todd, Chez Reavie
18:07 Stewart Cink, C.T. Pan, Patton Kizzire
18:18 Luke List, Seamus Power, Taylor Moore
18:29 Brice Garnett, Adam Hadwin, Danny Lee
18:40 Troy Merritt, Scott Stallings, Doug Ghim
18:51 Joseph Bramlett, Stephan Jaeger, Sahith Theegala
