Who’s better since the restart than Daniel Berger?
By Bill Felber
9. Rory McIlroy, -0.37
McIlroy is the world’s sixth ranked player, he has four major titles to his credit and his career winnings surpass $54 million. So expectations for him are always high.
In that context, it would be unfair to characterize his post restart performance as a disappointment. Still, it needs to be noted that McIlroy is winless in 15 Tour starts since June.
He has, of course, been a serious player, especially at the major events. He tied for fifth at November’s Masters, and for eighth at both the U.S. Open and the Tour Championship.
Since the BMW last August, McIlroy has made eight starts and been top 20 in seven of them. His only miss, by the narrowest of possible margins, was a tie for 21st at the CJ Cup.
He’s carrying a 69.52 stroke average since the restart with no missed cuts.
The drawback on McIlroy’s performance has been its round-to-round inconsistency. His 60 scored rounds include 10 rounds of 66 or better, but also 13 rounds of 73 or worse.
Mcilroy’s strongest performance, at Augusta National in November, measured 1.31 standard deviations better than that week’s field average. But for all the inconsistency in his round-to-round play, he’s generally cobbled together a solid four-round showing. In 11 of his 15 starts – and in all of them since the BMW – he has beaten the four-round field average.