The Long, Strange Trip of Rory McIlroy

Rory McIlroy was once a boy wonder. Between 2012 and 2015 he was a floppy haired, bouncy-stepped, golf ball-bombing machine who won four Majors in a three-year span.

He’s also won FedEx titles, Ryder Cups, a Player’s Championship, and an armful of tournaments around the world. He even reeled in the giant FedEx title as recently as 2019 by winning the Tour Championship.

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I tell you all this because this is what that player, Rory McIlroy, said this spring when reporters at The Masters asked him why he’d been winless for the past year or so.

Rory said, “I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t anything to do with what Bryson did at the U.S. Open. I think a lot of people saw that and were like, whoa.”

Rory had broken his swing by chasing Bryson. Those words, spoken by Rory McIlroy at this year’s Masters, initially struck me as a bad joke. I waited for that rye Irish smile to come across his face and then pivot to 2020 just being a weird, bad year for everyone.

But Rory was serious.

Rory McIlroy is, and has been for years, one of the longest drivers on Tour. No one ever said, “I bet Rory could regain his Major-winning form if he just added 15 yards to his driver.”

I’m not sure there is a single golfer on Planet Earth who wouldn’t trade their tee game for Rory’s. Outside of Bryson, I can only think of Jon Rahm and Dustin Johnson as guys who would probably keep their own.

He is currently 5th on Tour in shots gained off the tee. He can hit it as far as anyone who’s ever played on the PGA Tour. And yet, he felt so insufficient after watching Bryson bomb Winged Foot into submission that he started chasing more speed.

This isn’t about Bryson. He is a disruptor who continues to make other Pros question their approach and swings. That’s not changing and no one is immune from at least noticing how he’s changing the game.

This is about a multiple Major winner, multiple FedEx winner, multiple Ryder Cup member, and 19-time PGA Tour winner who spent much of the last year trying to change his swing.

But to paraphrase a pretty good writer from Rory’s side of the pond, “I come to praise Rory, not to bury him.”

What Rory admitted about messing up his swing tells me that Rory still has a couple more Majors in him.

Think of it this way. Rory McIlroy has already won four Majors, made the Ryder Cup time every time, won the giant FedEx pot twice, cashed all the Nike checks, and probably, to this day, has international supermodels sliding into his DMs.

Who is living that golfing life and thinking, “You know, I need to completely change my approach to my game. I could be doing so much better than I am.”

That’s pretty impressive. It’s also the mark of greatness.

When Rory is winning, there is no happier golfer on Tour. He emanates joy as he lopes down the fairway. Rory actually seems like he’s having fun when he plays well.

Some players have to put on a mean game-face to bring out their best. Think about Tiger and Brooks Koepka. Did either of them ever look like they were having fun? Dustin Johnson shows no emotion. Jordan Spieth shows emotion, but it’s often a roller coaster of highs and lows in a single round.

Rory is like a big Labrador Retriever chasing a ball down the fairway. He loves every second of it. Even when he wasn’t playing well, Rory seemed to appreciate his place in the world.

What he revealed to us with his comments at the Masters and his subsequent win last week at The Wells Fargo Championship is that he still has the fire in his belly.

He wants more, much more. He’s willing to go places most in his position wouldn’t go. It leads to only one conclusion.

Just like we’ve all enjoyed seeing Jordan Spieth emerge from a long hibernation, I suspect the rest of the golfing world is excited to see Rory back from his Quixotic journey in search of more ball speed.

Rory McIlroy isn’t done winning Majors. That’s a good thing – for him and golf fans who appreciate a man who wears his heart on his sleeve and loves the game as much as any player to ever tee it up.