McIlroy still searching: "I'm struggling to grasp what I'm trying to do"
Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland plays his stroke from the No. 2 tee during Round 1 of the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club, Thursday, November 12, 2020.
Rory McIlroy insists he has no plans to ditch his coach or caddie despite insisting he needs to go "in a different direction" after his disappointing Sunday finish in the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill.
Speaking ahead of The Players at TPC Sawgrass, where he is still the defending champion after the 2020 edition was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic, he revealed he was simply "venting" after a closing 76 dashed his slim chances of winning for the first time in 16 months.
"I think it was just me walking off the course not having my best day and I guess sort of venting a little bit to whoever was there at the time," said McIlroy, who has fallen to 11th in the world. "So that was really it.
"Look, I did feel dejected. I felt disappointed. I think one of the biggest things is, it's funny, I'd almost feel better if my game was worse, but it's the inconsistency of I shot 66 on Thursday and thought, I've got it, I feel really good, and then I didn't quite have it. The ups and downs are just a little too much.
"I think that's where I'm sort of struggling to come to terms with it and sort of trying to figure out what I need to do because the good stuff is there. It always will be. I'll always be able to figure it out and find a way."
Frustrated by his inconsistency, he denied he was thinking of sacking caddie Harry Diamond or lifelong coach Michael Bannon, explaining he was referring instead to a change of thinking.
"I certainly didn't mean like a change of personnel per se," McIlroy said. "I think more a change in philosophy or maybe what I'm trying to work on, maybe going in a slightly different direction.
"Swing-wise, I think there are some things that I'm working on that haven't quite bedded in, or I'm struggling to grasp what I'm trying to do, so that's sort of what I meant, talking about going in a different direction. Just sort of maybe trying something different or thinking about another way to do it, I guess. More so, I was coming from that point of view."
Frustrated by his inconsistency, especially in his iron play, he added: "Everyone out here can play great golf and shoot 65s and 64s," he said. "It's when you're feeling a little off still being able to get it in in a couple under and not losing too much ground to the field.
"I feel like I've putted well the last couple weeks. I've gained strokes on the field there, which has been a nice bit of progress, so I feel if anything, I've hit the driver pretty well, and I've putted well. It's just the stuff in the middle. It's the iron play.
“You have to be an eternal optimist in this game, and I truly believe that my best days are ahead of me”
"Obviously, the two balls in the water on six on Sunday cost me, but I wouldn't necessarily call them bad drives. They weren't much offline, and for the most part, I drove the ball pretty well apart from that.
“Just the iron play. My par-3 play has been pretty poor, and that goes back to iron play and missing it in the wrong spots and stuff. That's the big area of focus is just trying to get the iron play a little better."
Asked if decompressed on Sunday night by analysing statistics or having a few glasses of wine and simply forgetting about his performance, he said: “All of the above. Certainly had a couple of glasses of wine and watched a pretty compelling interview on Sunday night.”
One of McIlroy's biggest obstacles is comparisons with the likes of Tiger Woods, who won 90 times worldwide in an 18-year span.
"Look, we've all been spoiled with Tiger," he said. "Tiger is the only one that's done it for a sustained period of time. Everyone else has had their times, Ernie Els, Vijay Singh, Phil Mickelson, even myself. We've all had those great times and then the other times we've struggled a little bit or haven't played to the standard that we've set before.
"But Tiger is the only one that's done it year in, year out for a number of years. I think he might have set a benchmark that is obviously ridiculously high. We might see it again. Never say never. But it's going to take something very special to emulate what he did."
While all great players enjoy a period of dominance of around a decade, McIlroy is adamant that his best years are not behind him.
"No, I don't think you can ever think that," he said. "I've talked about this before; you have to be an eternal optimist in this game, and I truly believe that my best days are ahead of me, and you have to believe that.
"There's no point in me being out here if I didn't think that. That's just not part of my psyche or anyone's psyche out here.
"I think that's the difference between people that make it to the elite level and the people that don't, because they don't think that way.
"I certainly believe that my best days are ahead of me, and I'm working hard to make sure that they are.”
