McIlroy and Spieth: Winning Form is Mental
Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth made some fascinating comments on the nature of winning at their respective Open Championship press conferences.
Now that the Olympic talk is behind us, golfers like Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth can get back to the goal of trying to win the third major championship of the season.
At their pre-tournament press conferences, both players were asked about their past winning streaks and what they think causes streaks to come and go.
“It’s mostly mental,” Spieth said, although all his fans know he has been struggling with his swing this season.
“I know right now at this present moment, I’ll be brutally honest with you, it’s not the same feeling I had when I was getting ready for the Open Championship last year,” he admitted. “I believe in my ability that if I’m in contention, that I can bring my best stuff and take home the trophy. I believe I can close. The ability to get into contention, I’m a little hesitant with tee to green, versus last year I had just come off a win at the John Deere, striking the ball great.”
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“I feel like you get on a run where you start to win a couple of events and you have momentum on your side,” McIlroy explained. He cited his summer in 2014, Spieth’s year in 2015, Jason Day’s end of 2015 and Dustin Johnson’s current run.
“Golf is 75%, if not more, mental,” he continued. “Once you get into that good groove and you get some momentum and you feel good about yourself and you get that confidence going, you just try to keep it going as long as you possibly can.”
In 2014, McIlroy admitted he tried to keep it going through the end of summer and into the fall, but got tired during the FedExCup playoffs. He knows there’s a balance between extending good play and playing too much.
Spieth was also worn out after his whirlwind 2015 season. His swing is still not quite where he wants it.
“It puts a light on what Tiger has done even more so,” Spieth said about Woods’ victories. “I mean, if there’s any way what he’s done is underrated, I could still believe that it is, having tasted a year of it.”
But once you have it and lose it, how do you get it back? That, of course, is what haunts all golfers at nearly every level.
“It’s not a case of trying to wait for something to happen. You have to try to make something happen,” McIlroy explained. “I always try not to lose the belief, you know, the belief that you can hit the shot that’s required at the right time or hole the putt that’s needed. I feel like that’s the big thing. Once you lose belief in yourself and start to doubt yourself, that’s when it can start to go the other way.”
It creeps into the game in not so subtle ways.
“It’s very hard,” McIlroy said about the struggle to stay on top. “If you’re not hitting good shots and not holing putts, it’s hard to keep that belief and you do start to doubt yourself sometimes. But it’s just trying to play through it. I don’t really think there’s any other way to battle it.”
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As the old saying goes, the only way out is through. Spieth is quickly figuring that out.
“It’s been a successful year this year,” he noted. “But it’s not the same kind of feeling at this present moment [as last year]. I’m working a lot on how to gun-sling it, which is what I did last year, to step up, hit it, go to my natural movement and make some putts.”
He said that for him, the key is getting into a rhythm and minimizing mistakes. The putting is not a problem for him.
On the other hand, McIlroy gains self-belief by building confidence after hitting good shots and holing putts. In the practice round, McIlroy found himself challenged at the Postage Stamp hole, Royal Troon’s eighth.
“I think I took an 8 or a 9,” he explained. “Headed into the front right bunker and it took me like five or six goes to get out of it. There is a lot of sand in the bunker. So when the ball just trickles in back into the bunkers, it doesn’t go into the middle.”
The bunker lip is vertical, McIlroy noted, and the ball just kept falling back into the same spot.
“Bit of a struggle at the Postage Stamp for me,” he added. “So hopefully the struggle is out of the way for that hole.”
He did not think the course itself was tricky. He noted that the greens are flat, and that the big dangers are the bunkers.
His practicing focused on playing in the proper wind conditions, because the Open Championship is always about the wind.
“I think left-to-right wind is going to be pretty important this week, especially that back nine,” he explained. “There were a couple little shots I was working on last week because of that, and everything feels pretty comfortable. I mean, it definitely feels more comfortable than it did in France. I’ve seen enough good signs in there that I’m very encouraged going into this week.”
Spieth looks forward to the chance to win a third major.
“I believe in my ability, that if I’m in contention, that I can bring my best stuff and take home the trophy. I believe I can close,” he said confidently.
We are about to find out how right they are.
Next: Open Championship Top 10 Power Rankings
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