Rory McIlroy on Putting, Bay Hill and Arnold Palmer
Rory McIlroy feels good going into this week at Bay Hill.
Former world No.1 Rory McIlroy is happy with his new putting stroke, and is pleased with the way it works on the new greens at Bay Hill where the Arnold Palmer Invitational is being held.
“Putting feels good,” he said. “I”m really happy and excited about the switch.”
After making the change, he finished tied for third at the WGC Cadillac Championship at Doral and was in contention.
“First week out, at Doral, I felt it went pretty well. An extra week to practice with it and get more adjusted to it in terms of speed of putts and lag putting and feel even better about coming in to this week.”
In other words, McIlroy likes his putter again which could spell trouble for others.
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He also likes Bay Hill and the renovation to the greens. However, it’s only his second time playing the event.
“I feel like it’s a golf course that sets up well for me,” he explained. “You can’t not feel good about your putting on these greens. They’re so pure that, get the ball started on line with decent speed, you know it’s got a great chance of going in.”
The par fives should be birdie opportunities for Rory McIlroy, just like they were for Tiger Woods for years. Woods has already won the tournament eight times.
“I feel like the par fives are quite long, and with my length, I can take advantage of those,” he added. “Very strong par threes and the par fours give you some chances, but there’s a lot of strong par fours out there.”
The greens were renovated starting last May, and Tif Eagle Bermuda is now the putting surface.
“The greens won’t be over-seeded in the future,’’ Arnold Palmer said when the renovation announcement was made. “We now have a strain of Bermudagrass (TifEagle) that will resist the winters. We’re going to attempt to do the greens for next year’s tournament.’’
The greens were regrassed using what is called no-till method. That means all the contours were preserved.
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For the first time since the tournament began at Bay Hill, the host, Arnold Palmer has not had a big on-site presence due to health issues.
Naturally, with Palmer stepping out of the limelight, players are being asked what they think Palmer’s people can learn from his example and the impact Palmer has had on the game. McIlroy provided his thoughts and noted he’d had dinner with Palmer, an experience he enjoyed. For McIlroy, there were several take-aways.
“I think how good he is with people,” McIlroy said about defining a Palmer characteristic to be admired. “Obviously he had so much talent and success but if you look at how he is with people and how generous he is with his time and how gracious he is, he’s a great example to anyone growing up playing this game and playing it professionally because at the end of the day, the only reason that I’m up here speaking to you guys is I’m a good golfer. But if there wasn’t an industry and there wasn’t fans or media and wasn’t everyone involved in golf, I wouldn’t be up here.”
But people skills aren’t all, as Rory McIlroy noted.
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“He’s the first one – really, you look at us with all our logos on and endorsement contracts and all that sort of stuff and making so much money from this game– and Arnold was really the first one to do that,” he explained. “”He’s a real icon of the sport.”