According to former European Tour player and Golf Channel analyst Paul McGinley, there are still several things that Rory McIlroy needs to do to shore up his game.
And that's what he will have to do to win The Players Championship for a second time. McGinley seems to be convinced that it's McIlroy's short game that needs the most work at the moment.
But McIlroy undoubtedly has some advantages, even beyond his length, as there's an intimidation factor every time he steps on the golf course, which might even be worth a stroke or two.
There were the weather conditions at TPC Sawgrass that added to some of McIlroy’s issues during Saturday's third-round 73, after which he noted that the greens were made slower due to the anticipated wind. And he admitted to having some trouble adjusting to them.
What’s amusing about that is many Europeans struggle when they first come to the PGA Tour because the green speeds are so much faster here in the U.S.
On the flip side, in tournaments like The Open Championship, many American players struggle because the green speeds are so slow. But those putting surfaces almost have to be because the British Open courses are usually near the ocean and subject to high winds. As such, golf balls could easily be blown away if the greens are cut too low.
McIlroy enumerated some of the mistakes he made in round three.
“Three-putt on 5. Sort of made a mess of 12, three-putted 13, three-putted 17,” he said.
Just cleaning up those three-putts could have put him only one behind the lead heading into his final 18 holes.
“Most of the dropped shots were from around-the-green mistakes rather than tee to green,” Rory added. “I felt like I hit the ball pretty well, controlled my flight. It was nice to make a birdie on 18 at least and see one putt go in.”
He agreed that four shots was not a big lead at TPC Sawgrass because so many things can happen on nearly any hole.
“I shot 1-over today, and I feel like I could have shot...I feel like every bogey was really soft. I could have shot something in the 60s,” he suggested. “I have to at least be encouraged by how I hit it and how I controlled myself around there.”
McIlroy said he needed to chip and putt better on Sunday. In addition, another ball flight characteristic he mentioned during the week that was important for him to achieve was keeping his ball flight below the tops of the trees because that way the ball is less impacted by the wind.
So, fewer three putts, fewer mistakes around the green, and keeping ball flight below the treetops are the three things he’s concentrating on to help bring his score down in the final round of The Players.