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Zozo Championship: Top 10 power rankings at Sherwood Country Club

By Mike Randleman

THOUSAND OAKS, CA - OCTOBER 27: Jesper Parnevik of Sweden makes a tee shot on the 14th hole during round two of the PGA Champions Tour 2018 Invesco QQQ Championship at the Sherwood Country Club on October 27, 2018 in Thousand Oaks, California. (Photo by Robert Laberge/Getty Images)
THOUSAND OAKS, CA - OCTOBER 27: Jesper Parnevik of Sweden makes a tee shot on the 14th hole during round two of the PGA Champions Tour 2018 Invesco QQQ Championship at the Sherwood Country Club on October 27, 2018 in Thousand Oaks, California. (Photo by Robert Laberge/Getty Images) /
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Oct 17, 2020; Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; Rory McIlroy looks at the green on the second hole during the third round of the CJ Cup golf tournament at Shadow Creek Golf Course. Mandatory Credit: Kelvin Kuo-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 17, 2020; Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; Rory McIlroy looks at the green on the second hole during the third round of the CJ Cup golf tournament at Shadow Creek Golf Course. Mandatory Credit: Kelvin Kuo-USA TODAY Sports /

Rory McIlroy is one of the younger players in the field to have played competitively at Sherwood Country Club.

The Northern Irishman was still a baby-faced 21-year-old when he teed it up at the 2010 Chevron World Challenge. Scores of 66-70-73-68 helped him to solo fourth in the 18-man event. It was just a morsel of what was to come next year at the U.S. Open and beyond.

He returned to Thousand Oaks for the tournament’s final time at Sherwood in 2013. McIlroy got off to a woeful start of 73-77 before recovering for 68-70 on the weekend to salvage 11th.

What should be given more weight is the state of his current game. It’s fine, but uninspiring.

Similar to how I’ll go on to describe Jon Rahm later on in the rankings is how I think of McIlroy. Even some of his worst days are good enough to help him carve out top-25s.

It’s what he did for the fourth straight event last week at the CJ Cup. Scores of 73-69-66-74 produced T-21st.

McIlroy led the field in strokes gained off the tee (1.52 per round) but couldn’t get dialed in with the irons or putter. Same old song that’s kept him from contending since play resumed in June.

Some slack can be cut given he was playing for the first time since the U.S. Open at an unfamiliar venue in Shadow Creek. Shave a few strokes off that Sunday round and it would have been a fourth straight top-12 finish.

He’s not far off.

A less rusty Rory looks to be a good fit for Sherwood. He should be able to hit a decent amount of drivers and tends to play well on air attack, parkland style courses like this.

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