Rory McIlroy Still Seeking Game Improvements
Rory McIlroy has already won four major championships, 20 PGA Tour events, and nine tournaments outside the U.S. Tour. As he begins his 15th season since turning professional in 2007, which seems impossible, he’s still looking to improve in a few areas. He’s not after massive alterations. Just a few tweaks here and there, some physical, some mental, that will help him get to the winner’s circle even more frequently.
“I’d love to win six times in a season. I’ve never done that before,” he said at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship. “I’ve won five.”
But a certain number of victories in a year is not the way he is looking at things now.
“I used to sit down on the flight here and write down, like: I want to win five times. I want to win a major. I want to win The Race to Dubai. I want to win the FedExCup,” he said about past years. “And, of course, I want to do all those things.”
He has already done that and more.
He’s won the FedExCup twice, the Race to Dubai three times, the Vardon Trophy, and the Byron Nelson award — both for low scoring average — three times. He was the European Golfer of the Year three times and the PGA Tour Player of the Year three times. He’s won golf tournaments on five of seven continents.
Rory McIlroy won four majors by the time he was 25, but he’s now 32, an age that used to be considered the prime time for golfers to win major championships. But the clock is ticking.
To be more prolific in the win column, McIlroy’s changing direction slightly. He’s going to think small instead of thinking big. Instead of saying he wants to win a certain number of majors, he’s focused on smaller targets.
“I want to hit over 60 percent of my fairways. I want my proximity inside 150 yards to be a certain number. I want my strokes gained putting to be a certain number,” he explained.
In other words, he’s looking to have the kind of stats he knows will give him a chance to win, not every week, but more often.
Between 2012, when he officially joined the PGA Tour, and last season, his percent of fairways hit has never been below 55 percent. The lowest was 55.06 in the 2016-17 season, and he had no PGA Tour victories during that time. The highest was 61.82 in 2018-19, and he won The Players, the RBC Canadian Open, and the Tour Championship.
However, the two seasons when he had five victories, 2012 and 2015-16, were at two ends of the spectrum. In 2012, he hit 56.61percent of fairways. In 2015-16, he hit 61.06 percent of fairways and spent several weeks sidelined with torn ligaments in his left ankle which he got playing soccer with friends. One has to wonder what he might have done in 2015-16 if he had played Words with Friends instead.
“The Holy Grail is three,” he said at the time. “I’m not going to stop until I get to three because Tiger has done that multiple seasons…” — Rory McIlroy
One goal we know Rory McIlroy is chasing is strokes gained tee to green. After winning the 2019 Tour Championship, he was 2.55 strokes gained for that season. He wants to get to 3.00, tee to green.
“The Holy Grail is three,” he said at the time. “I’m not going to stop until I get to three because Tiger has done that multiple seasons, and when you get to three strokes gained, you’re just in another league.”
The issue is that others are also trying to improve, and he knows that. He may have chances to win but not convert. Or he could get outplayed. So, for now, he’s going to work on the things he can control, that he can measure against his performance and see what he needs to do to improve even more.
“I can certainly control if I hit 60 percent of the fairways,” he explained. “I can control if my numbers, my strokes gained numbers, my stats are better than they were the year before.”
He’d love to tidy up his iron play a little bit. He thinks he can gain a half to a full shot with good approaches.
“I’ve done that before. I feel like I can do that again,” he insisted.
And of course, when approaches are better, he’s closer to the hole, and that gives him a better chance to make birdies and eagles.
“The more opportunities you give yourself, you know, the putts will — some weeks will fall, some weeks they won’t, but I think over the last few years, I’ve certainly become a more consistent putter, and I certainly hole what I feel is my fair share,” he said.
One thing he does not need to do, in his opinion, is hit his drives farther. Instead, he’s going to be more selective.
“The best player of the last 30 years, Tiger, he picked and chose where he hit driver, and he played a very, very controlled game. It didn’t work out too badly for him.”