RORY SWINGS HOT AND COLD AS FORM HITS ROUGH PATCH
RORY McILROY is riding a rollercoaster without any of the fun of the fair.
The world No 1 admitted he’s making ‘dumb mistakes’ since the PGA Tour restart and that his play has become ‘a little too up and down’.
After tying 11th behind Dustin Johnson in the Travelers Championship in Cromwell, Connecticut on Sunday, McIlroy chastised his ‘decision making’ and the errors which have crept into his play.
While he has broken 70 in nine of the 12 rounds he’s played this month, McIlroy hasn’t contended on Sunday which he feels ‘sort of sucks’.
Before the Tour went into hibernation in mid-March, McIlroy had chalked up a third-place finish and three top fives in four events.
But an average finish of 28th at the Charles Schwab Challenge, RBC Heritage and now the Travelers, has McIlroy miffed.
‘Over the last few weeks I’ve made too many mistakes, too many bogeys, too many loose shots
‘It’s a little too up and down, a little bit roller coaster-ish, where it didn’t really feel like that before we (the PGA Tour) stopped. It was sort of quite consistent and sort of building sort of rounds very nicely, a lot of pars, a few birdies, not many mistakes.’
McIlroy got to 15 under par on Sunday and would have finished sixth with two closing pars but he faltered with a double-bogey on the 17th where he splashed into a water hazard after going for the green from a bunker. Laying up may have been the smarter move.
‘My decision-making was terrible the last few days. Just some stupid shots and trying to take too much on at times. It’s just sort of dumb mistakes in there that I don’t usually make.’
‘I’ve been frustrated on the course the last three weeks, not being sort of in contention, and sort of sucks going off in the middle of the pack on a Sunday, knowing that you don’t really have a chance.’
On closer inspection, McIlroy’s final rounds in 2020 haven’t been as sharp as he’d like them to be, as he hasn’t always figured coming down the stretch.
Co-leader after 54 holes in the Genesis Invitational in late January, he carded a 73 which included a triple bogey-bogey stumble on the front nine. He finished three shots behind the winner, Adam Scott.
In the Arnold Palmer Invitational in early March, he was two back starting Sunday but coughed up five shots between the fifth and the ninth and never got into contention as Tyrell Hatton triumphed.
McIlroy is skipping this week’s Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit and may extend his break until the Memorial Tournament on July 16-19.
‘The way I’m feeling right now, I feel like a couple weeks off,’ he said.
Open champion Shane Lowry is also taking a break after a stuttery three-week stint which yielded two missed cuts and a 60th place finish in the Travelers Championship. His world ranking has fallen back to 24, from 19 at the start of the year, and he has made few Ryder Cup gains.
Seamus Power is in the Detroit field but Graeme McDowell remains in isolation at his Florida home after his caddie, Ken Comboy, tested positive for Covid-19.
Meanwhile, Dylan Fritelli has become the latest PGA Tour player to catch the virus and has withdrawn from the Detroit event.
‘I am experiencing no issues and feel great physically and was surprised and disappointed to learn of the positive test,’ said the South African.
Frittelli is the fourth PGA Tour player to test positive for coronavirus since the Tour’s return on June 11, after Nick Watney, Cameron Champ and Denny McCarthy.
“I’m making mistakes that I would not usually make”