Rory McIlroy - 4 Time Major Winner

davo10

CMOTDibbler wrote: »

I actually think his big failing has been his approach game. His putting has always been iffy, but his approach game was getting him close to the hole where putting was just a game of averages. And when you're within six feet of the hole you're going to get a lot of birdies.

But for the last few years, he's been leaving himself some massive putts when he's had a wedge in his hand for his second. I didn't see what happened on his 18th hole on Friday, but with 104 yards to go, he missed the green entirely. By a mile. :eek:

I'm just a duffer of the worst sort, but even I expect to hit greens from that distance. When I'm inside 50 yards, I expect to get it close enough to have a one putt. Now I know they are very fast greens and much tougher to hold, but these guys are pros and play a lot more than I do.

You just can't convert birdies from 30 feet.

I agree, is it lack of concentration or is it that when he has a wedge in his hands he is thinking too much about the next shot, the putt? Great players don't think like that.

I think it was Nicklaus who said that missing a green with a 9 iron was like missing your mouth with a fork.

Every Sunday club golfer has "on their day" rounds where every drive hits the fairway, every putt drops and we think, crikey I could be good at this, but the next Sunday we revert back to our normal game, Maybe this is McIllroys "normal" game and his rightful place in the game of golf, outrageously good at times when he looks out of sight of everyone else, but then he reverts to mistake strewn rounds where his talent makes the scores look better than they should.

Nothing this year suggests he will be at the top in the remaining two majors of the year, if he doesn't win one of those, it will be four years without a major, hardly what was expected when he was blitzing the field in 2014.

I am not suggesting for a second that there are any similarities in their level of talent in their sport, but for some time David Beckham was considered an extremely talented footballer, won lots of major honours, but after a while he seemed more interested in commercial ventures than on field success. He is now a very rich man, sold a lot of boots for addidas, a lot of jerseys for his clubs, but not considered a great footballer.

ForeRight

It seems to be 100% concentration with him. When he is on he seems to be the best and very very hard to beat.

Unfortunately when he is not in the mix in a tournament he just throws his hat at it. We see the very best of him when the heat is truly on and he's in the hunt.
Like the Irish open last year or the fed ex cup etc.

His concentration levels at these points are in top gear, you can see it in his demeanour.

Unfortunately I think people have expected him to be tiger like when in fact he is just a very different personality and probably a lot more human than the likes of tiger.

CMOTDibbler

ForeRight wrote: »

It seems to be 100% concentration with him. When he is on he seems to be the best and very very hard to beat.

Unfortunately when he is not in the mix in a tournament he just throws his hat at it. We see the very best of him when the heat is truly on and he's in the hunt.
Like the Irish open last year or the fed ex cup etc.

His concentration levels at these points are in top gear, you can see it in his demeanour.

Unfortunately I think people have expected him to be tiger like when in fact he is just a very different personality and probably a lot more human than the likes of tiger.

I suspect you're right. In some ways I think he treats those rounds when he's not in the hunt as a glorified practice round.

I often wonder though, does he have issues with distances that aren't right on the number with a club in his bag? Trying to take yards off can often end up with a wayward shot.

luvthegame

davo10 wrote: »

I am not suggesting for a second that there are any similarities in their level of talent in their sport, but for some time David Beckham was considered an extremely talented footballer, won lots of major honours, but after a while he seemed more interested in commercial ventures than on field success. He is now a very rich man, sold a lot of boots for addidas, a lot of jerseys for his clubs, but not considered a great footballer.

Not even close, poor analogy.

luvthegame

CMOTDibbler wrote: »

I actually think his big failing has been his approach game. His putting has always been iffy, but his approach game was getting him close to the hole where putting was just a game of averages. And when you're within six feet of the hole you're going to get a lot of birdies.

6 feet? He's not even converting those! Right now putting is his biggest single problem. Yes his approach game could be better but if you were watching teh last few days he had plenty of opportunities for birdies. How many par 5's did he reach in two? He was within 6ft A LOT.

davo10

luvthegame wrote: »

Not even close, poor analogy.

The clue is in the first line of the analogy, should I have used a simpler one?

Those at the top in any sport are motivated more by success in the sport than off field commercialism, that is why they are at the top. Ask Woods if he would swop his $100m contract with Nike for 4 more majors, or even one more.

I thought this article sums it up nicely.

http://m.independent.ie/sport/golf/massive-hitters-add-to-mcilroys-major-problems-35840060.html

Mantis Toboggan

Nice star -2 after 3

ligerdub

davo10 wrote: »

Mcillroy has now been on the pro tour for 10 years and he is no where near the dominating force that many expected him to be, or that $100 and $200 million deals are rewarding him for being.

It shows me that it is no where near enough to be the best and most talented ball stricker on the tour, that only gets you the price of admission. He has to be a more complete golfer, and after 10 years, it's hard to see that happening now. His putter will always be his Achilles.

He could make up for being an average putter by being mind blowingly long off the tee, he was playing 9 irons for his second shot when most others were playing 6-7 irons or lower. Here's a stat, of the 156 players in the US Open last week, 142 of them averaged over 300 yards off the tee, the amateur Cameron Champ averaged 332 yards. Mcillroy's length advantage is gone. The last 7 major champions are first time winners so the field has bunched up with very little to seperate 1 through 50th in the world.

The pack has gotten better, can anyone say that Mcillroy is a better player now than in 2014 when he won his last major?

I think that unless McIllroy starts focusing more on golf, less on money, more on putting, less on media sound bites and more on the clubs that will work best for him rather than taking the greenback to sell Taylormade's, I don't think he will ever be as good for as long as we thought he would be. He's just a very, very good player, but that's all.

I'd say that's a very good post bar the bit in bold, which I completely disagree with. Absolutely nobody ever has focused on his game and practice all day and every day. There is more than enough time to look after your practice and preparation for your profession as well as maximizing your commercial side. It's even easier when you consider a lot of his commercial duties will be wrapped around your professional schedule.

I'm sure he is a busy man but I've no doubt that his focus on winning tournaments comes first and if anything would get in the way of that he would kick it to the curb.

I totally agree with everything else you've said though.

luvthegame

davo10 wrote: »

The clue is in the first line of the analogy, should I have used a simpler one?

Those at the top in any sport are motivated more by success in the sport than off field commercialism, that is why they are at the top. Ask Woods if he would swop his $100m contract with Nike for 4 more majors, or even one more.

I thought this article sums it up nicely.

http://m.independent.ie/sport/golf/massive-hitters-add-to-mcilroys-major-problems-35840060.html

David Beckham wasn't even a great footballer of his generation. Anyone who thought he was doesn't know zip about soccer. McIlroy can be considered great when compared with those he has played against. Beyond that remains to be seen.

CMOTDibbler

luvthegame wrote: »

6 feet? He's not even converting those! Right now putting is his biggest single problem. Yes his approach game could be better but if you were watching teh last few days he had plenty of opportunities for birdies. How many par 5's did he reach in two? He was within 6ft A LOT.

Just looking at his back nine yesterday as an example (front nine on the course):

10th: Second shot from 108 yards in the bunker, 53 feet short.
11th: Second shot from 34 yards, 33 feet short (missed the green).
12th: Second shot from 89 yards, 23 foot too long.
13th: Second shot from 193 yards, left with a 20 footer. OK
14th: Par three 223 yards, too long, left with a 43 footer. OK
15th: Birdied this one (Par 5). Good
16th: Second shot from 146 yards, short 33 yards in bunker.
17th: Par three 202 yards. Overhit and missed green. 21 yards from pin.
18th: Second shot from 135 yards. Missed green short.

It really doesn't matter what he does with his putter if he's got a sand wedge in his hand for his third shot on a par 4. :rolleyes:

Armchair Andy

-6 so far today. T6.
Cant see which putter he's using today

mickmackey1

Looks like he's gonna set the clubhouse target at this rate!

Potential Underachiever

Potential Underachiever wrote: »

Rory is great at backing into a good finish, he will play well on the Saturday or Sunday and shoot low when he's already well out of contention and the pressure is off.

Rory doing a Rory!

fullstop

Armchair Andy wrote: »

-6 so far today. T6.
Cant see which putter he's using today

Changed it again today apparently.

luvthegame

Armchair Andy wrote: »

-6 so far today. T6.
Cant see which putter he's using today

Looks like a regular plumbers anser, could be a scotty?

Mantis Toboggan

Great round today, hopefully he can build some momentum for his return to Europe.

CMOTDibbler

Good round, but again on the 18th missed the green from 125 yards. Inevitable bogey followed.

Tom.D.BJJ

Striking it so well.

Armchair Andy

Whens the last time he's been at world no.4 or lower?

Johnny_Fontane

Armchair Andy wrote: »

Whens the last time he's been at world no.4 or lower?

last september he was fifth

bmay529

luvthegame wrote: »

Looks like a regular plumbers anser, could be a scotty?

I read it was a taylormade tour proto tp collection juno... like his old scotty or nike

Quintis

bmay529 wrote: »

I read it was a taylormade tour proto tp collection juno... like his old scotty or nike

https://twitter.com/jonathanrwall/status/879023123944886273

luvthegame

Rikand wrote: »

blackcard wrote: »

Rory really needs Stevie Wonder to start lining up his putts.

Nothing to do with that - far too often he just throws his hands at the putt which causes him to open the club face and he whiffs it. He does that twice and then holds it too hard on the next one and pulls the next one.

He needs to go back to cackhanded - his stroke looked so good and he'd feckin learn distance control if he needed to.

Didn't realise tommy Fleetwood worked with Kenyon. He'll try the pencil grip before years end.

davo10

Another poor effort from a player with pretention to be among the worlds best players, you can't compete if you can't putt.

tayto lover

davo10 wrote: »

Another poor effort from a player with pretention to be among the worlds best players, you can't compete if you can't putt.

Chipping is also a big problem for him. He was awful today again.

ligerdub

His play from 130 yards in must have been one of the very worst in the field this week, a worrying stat, not as easy one to recover.

Halfprice

He's always struggled from 130y in. Some days it works fine but more often if doesn't. Look at Dustin, Butch said he has worked so hard on his short game and we have seen him reap the rewards, Rory needs to work on this part of his game and his putting, a serious amount, if he wants to compete again, he is way behind some of the others i think

Quintis

If Rorys stats were recorded he would be
-#3 Strokes Gained total, behind Dustin and Rickie & ahead of Spieth
-#2 SG Tee to Green
-#1 SG Off the Tee
-#1 SG approach to the green on .834, ahead of Day at .649.
-#105th SG putting

Issue seems pretty clear...

Mantis Toboggan

Quintis wrote: »

If Rorys stats were recorded he would be
-#3 Strokes Gained total, behind Dustin and Rickie & ahead of Spieth
-#2 SG Tee to Green
-#1 SG Off the Tee
-#1 SG approach to the green on .834, ahead of Day at .649.
-#105th SG putting

Issue seems pretty clear...

How are approaches to the green measured?

Quintis

Tyson Fury wrote: »

How are approaches to the green measured?

Strokes gained: total simply compares a player's score to the field average. For example, a player will gain three strokes on the field if he shoots 69 on a day when the field averages 72. A player who shoots 74 on that day loses two strokes to the field.

Strokes gained: approach-the-green measures player performance on approach shots. Approach shots include all shots that are not from the tee on par-4 and par-5 holes and are not included in strokes gained: around-the-green and strokes gained: putting. Approach shots include tee shots on par-3s....

http://www.pgatour.com/news/2016/05/31/strokes-gained-defined.html

A better explanation below...

The first concept to understand is the establishment of strokes-to-hole benchmarks. This is the key that unlocks strokes gained, and the work has already been done. These benchmarks are the average strokes-to-hole from every possible position and lie on a golf course, generated by a consistently performing group of golfers. The numbers have been determined with extreme accuracy by using ShotLink™ data, representing millions of shots performed by PGA Tour pros during real tournaments over the course of many years.
The benchmark numbers are simply the average number of strokes it takes PGA Tour pros to hole out from any position on the golf course. Every ball at rest is defined by the two most important variables for a golf shot: the distance-to-hole and lie type.

http://www.strokesgainedgolf.com/How-Strokes-Gained-Works.html

TL;DR: Essentially how many strokes more or less he took compared to the averages number of shots taken by the field in that scenario measured at 0