Rory McIlroy - 4 Time Major Winner

big_drive

-3 thru 8 holes, great start

Just drove it 384 yards on the 8th hole!!!

fred funk }{

Bad miss just now.

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fred funk }{ wrote: »

Bad miss just now.

That was an awful effort, don't know why he was tapping the line after, he pushed the hell out of it.

Dr Devious

face it, he really is a shocking with the putter, ya wouldn't see a weekend golfer with some of the attempts he makes from time to time.

fred funk }{

fullstop wrote: »

That was an awful effort, don't know why he was tapping the line after, he pushed the hell out of it.

They all do that after a bad putt. Blaming the imaginary spike mark.

bigtimecharlie

A birdie on the last keep's him in top 10. but how?

That putter was stone cold today, but wedge play was suspect overall.

Not capatalising on the long drives cost him 2 shots per day at least.

CMOTDibbler

bigtimecharlie wrote: »

A birdie on the last keep's him in top 10. but how?

That putter was stone cold today, but wedge play was suspect overall.

Not capatalising on the long drives cost him 2 shots per day at least.

Over half a stroke gained putting isn't bad at all. But the wedges and general approach play are still letting him down. 67% GIR against Matsuyama's 90% tells a story.

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CMOTDibbler wrote: »

Over half a stroke gained putting isn't bad at all. But the wedges and general approach play are still letting him down. 67% GIR against Matsuyama's 90% tells a story.

Well in fairness, 90% GIR over the course of a tournament is exceptional.

CMOTDibbler

fullstop wrote: »

Well in fairness, 90% GIR over the course of a tournament is exceptional.

No, those figures were just for the last round. But then Matsuyama shot -9, so he had to be hitting a lot of greens in regulation.

HighLine

Rory trolling all us armchair experts. How about practicing with just a wedge?

https://www.facebook.com/RoryMcIlroy/videos/1439001696179918/

CMOTDibbler

HighLine wrote: »

Rory trolling all us armchair experts. How about practicing with just a wedge?

https://www.facebook.com/RoryMcIlroy/videos/1439001696179918/

I wonder should he emulate Phil Mickelson and put a 64° in the bag?

With the short approaches he often has, it might be the club for him.

luvthegame

CMOTDibbler wrote: »

I wonder should he emulate Phil Mickelson and put a 64° in the bag?

With the short approaches he often has, it might be the club for him.

Unfortunately the guys Rory is out driving by 20/30 yards still have wedges in their hands. And they are better than him with short irons. If Phil was playing Rory's second shots he would win handy.

His best hope is quail hollow is very soft and he'll be hitting 9/8 vs 7/6 for 80% of the field.

Loire

HighLine wrote: »

Rory trolling all us armchair experts. How about practicing with just a wedge?

https://www.facebook.com/RoryMcIlroy/videos/1439001696179918/

Jees, you could watch that all day long :cool:

fullstop

CMOTDibbler wrote: »

I wonder should he emulate Phil Mickelson and put a 64° in the bag?

With the short approaches he often has, it might be the club for him.

He's already spinning the ball too much with a lot of wedge shots IMO, so that wouldn't be the greatest idea.

CMOTDibbler

fullstop wrote: »

He's already spinning the ball too much with a lot of wedge shots IMO, so that wouldn't be the greatest idea.

He doesn't get anywhere near the spin Jordan Spieth gets. A lot of the time he gets none at all.

fullstop

CMOTDibbler wrote: »

He doesn't get anywhere near the spin Jordan Spieth gets. A lot of the time he gets none at all.

Well, he certainly struggles to take spin off wedge shots. You may have a point about the ones inside 35-40 yards though, Speith generates unreal amounts of spin on those.

davo10

Can McIllroy seriously be considered one of the games top golfers when his short game is so limited?. I know there will be posters who will say "on his day" or "when his putter is hot" or "when his mind is really on it" he will post a low score and he is the best in the world, he isn't and probably never will be because no matter how hard he practices, he is a bad putter of a golf ball. He'll have some good days (every golfer does) but he will have more bad days because putting does not come naturally to him. I think Speith is a much better player with a more complete game, McIllroy hits it further and sweeter, Speith is more accurate, more even tempered and has a much better short game.

I'll wager Speith will finish his career with many more majors than McIllroy.

CMOTDibbler

davo10 wrote: »

Can McIllroy seriously be considered one of the games top golfers when his short game is so limited?. I know there will be posters who will say "on his day" or "when his putter is hot" or "when his mind is really on it" he is the best in the world, he isn't and probably never will be because no matter how hard he practices, he is a bad putter of a golf ball. He'll have some good days (every golfer does) but he will have more bad days because putting does not come naturally to him. I think Speith is a much better player with a more complete game, McIllroy hits it further and sweeter, Speith is more accurate, more even tempered and has a much better short game.

I'll wager Speith will finish his career with many more majors than McIllroy.

I'm not going to say that.

He's actually become a pretty decent putter of late. The problem he has; and it's been posted on this thread numerous times, plus he's even admitted it himself, is that his wedge game at the moment is pretty poor. Actually imo, it's downright awful. I'm a high enough handicapper and I'd be pissed off if I was missing the green from 140 yards in.

You could be the best putter in the world, but if you're constantly having birdie putts from 20 feet and more, you're just not going to sink enough of them to challenge in big tournaments. So he looks like he's missing loads of putts, but they're too often from the 25% gettable and less range. Look at Matsuyama's final round at the WGC. He was stitching it to pins time after time and converting enough of them to go -9. Jordan Spieth missed a lot of really gettable putts and nobody's drawing attention to that for some reason.

At the WGC, McIlroy's strokes gained putting were (iirc): +2.6, -1.5, -0.9, +0.6.

So on average his putting for the tournament was better than the field. But his GIR was extremely poor. Something like 50% on the last day.

newport2

davo10 wrote: »

Can McIllroy seriously be considered one of the games top golfers when his short game is so limited?. I know there will be posters who will say "on his day" or "when his putter is hot" or "when his mind is really on it" he will post a low score and he is the best in the world, he isn't and probably never will be because no matter how hard he practices, he is a bad putter of a golf ball. He'll have some good days (every golfer does) but he will have more bad days because putting does not come naturally to him. I think Speith is a much better player with a more complete game, McIllroy hits it further and sweeter, Speith is more accurate, more even tempered and has a much better short game.

I'll wager Speith will finish his career with many more majors than McIllroy.

You may be right about Spieth ending up with more, but I think if McIlroy can win in spite of his putting, then his results speak for themselves. Tiger Woods was a bad driver of the golf ball - probably that element of his game was up there with Rory's putting I'd consider Day and DJ to be top and Mcilroy has won 4 times as many majors as either, with a couple of recent seasons disrupted by injury. I think sometimes his putting mistakes are more heavily emphasised than other players because he's so good tee to green. TBH, it's really his wedges that are holding him back at the moment, he's hitting shots a lot of us wouldn't be happy with. If he sorts that out he'll be back on track IMO.

Russman

davo10 wrote: »

Can McIllroy seriously be considered one of the games top golfers when his short game is so limited?. I know there will be posters who will say "on his day" or "when his putter is hot" or "when his mind is really on it" he will post a low score and he is the best in the world, he isn't and probably never will be because no matter how hard he practices, he is a bad putter of a golf ball. He'll have some good days (every golfer does) but he will have more bad days because putting does not come naturally to him. I think Speith is a much better player with a more complete game, McIllroy hits it further and sweeter, Speith is more accurate, more even tempered and has a much better short game.

I'll wager Speith will finish his career with many more majors than McIllroy.

I'd hardly say his short game is limited tbh. His pitching, chipping and bunker play are amongst the very best in the world. Granted he's struggling with the full wedge shots right now, say >110yds, I've no idea whether that's because of technique, new clubs, focus, whatever, but I don't think he's always been as poor from that distance ? Now, he's no Luke Donald either !

Personally I think the putting woes have been slightly overstated in a way. If he was hitting it closer with the short irons I reckon he'd hole more putts and have less 3 putts.
From inside 10 feet this season he's holing 87.6% compared to 87.28% for JS, not much in it. From 5 feet and 6 feet he's 80.65% and 80% compared to 77.78% and 70.83% for Spieth, again not much in it.

On the flip side, from 20-25 feet Spieth holes 22.4% (which is f--king insane !!) compared to 6.25% for RM. Massive difference between holing almost 1 in 4 from that distance and only holing around 1 in 20 especially when you consider its probably the sort of distance most of them hit iron shots to.

I know stats can be made to show whatever you want really, but I don't think he's as bad a putter as is made out. Possibly a bit like Monty in the way he took so many putts because he hit so many greens.

Anyway, its all opinions obviously, but there's just no way can I see Spieth finishing his career with more majors. He's not half the golfer McIlroy is IMO. He's a superb player alright, but when the 25 footers stop dropping, he's basically your upper middle of the pack tour player.

CMOTDibbler

Russman wrote: »

Anyway, its all opinions obviously, but there's just no way can I see Spieth finishing his career with more majors. He's not half the golfer McIlroy is IMO. He's a superb player alright, but when the 25 footers stop dropping, he's basically your upper middle of the pack tour player.

Great post. And very true about Spieth. All he needs is one or two rounds where those 25 footers are dropping and he can dominate a tournament. But when they don't, he falls back into the pack.

Halfprice

You keep leaving urself with 20ft putts on the greens the pro's play you are bound to make a few 3 putts and thats what is happening with Rory and other tour players for that matter. If he can get his wedge play tightend up he'll be back winning simple as.

Russman

CMOTDibbler wrote: »

Great post. And very true about Spieth. All he needs is one or two rounds where those 25 footers are dropping and he can dominate a tournament. But when they don't, he falls back into the pack.

Thanks ! And I'm not knocking Spieth at all btw, he's a super, super golfer. You don't get 3/4 way to a career slam at his age (or any age !) by being sh1t. But it just struck me watching him play with Day and McIlroy at Firestone that he plays a completely different game to them, not necessarily worse, but he really does need to be holing those long ones to compete. Which is part of golf too, but I'd be surprised if someone continues to hole long putts at his rate over a career.

CMOTDibbler

Russman wrote: »

Thanks ! And I'm not knocking Spieth at all btw, he's a super, super golfer. You don't get 3/4 way to a career slam at his age (or any age !) by being sh1t. But it just struck me watching him play with Day and McIlroy at Firestone that he plays a completely different game to them, not necessarily worse, but he really does need to be holing those long ones to compete. Which is part of golf too, but I'd be surprised if someone continues to hole long putts at his rate over a career.

No, me neither. His scrambling game and his ability to get out of tight spots is unbelievable at times. He's often in the rough, but it doesn't seem to slow him down. Most players would be looking at bogey every time they've missed a fairway, but Spieth can get it on the green when others fail. Once there, he's almost always going to get down in at most two.

I think his struggles happen when he's constantly fighting for par. Too many wayward shots off the tee and eventually it tells on the scoreboard.

HighLine

Think Rory will get the win this weekend. He loves this track and it will be playing soft so hopefully he will be hitting in longer irons into greens. If he can just improve on his GIR, I think it's his.

CMOTDibbler

HighLine wrote: »

Think Rory will get the win this weekend. He loves this track and it will be playing soft so hopefully he will be hitting in longer irons into greens. If he can just improve on his GIR, I think it's his.

Definitely has a chance, although the course has been changed somewhat. I assume he's been working on his wedges (he said he would ), so no more missing pins by yards I hope.

Since the couple of missed cuts, he's been T4 and T5, so he's certainly getting into contention. Just needs that extra click to bring it up a notch. Bookies favourite at the moment, but what would they know?

BoardsMember

Spieth is a brilliant putter, and scrambler, but his course management is also as good as it gets. This is in no small part helped by his relationship with his caddy. Every decision is carefully discussed & analysed before being committed to and executed. This is not something I have ever seen Rory engage in. Lots of the top pros do this.

Not wanting to sound churlish or flippant, but Spieth also seems to get extremely luck quite often!

CMOTDibbler

BoardsMember wrote: »

Spieth is a brilliant putter, and scrambler, but his course management is also as good as it gets. This is in no small part helped by his relationship with his caddy. Every decision is carefully discussed & analysed before being committed to and executed. This is not something I have ever seen Rory engage in. Lots of the top pros do this.

Not wanting to sound churlish or flippant, but Spieth also seems to get extremely luck quite often!

I've been slagged on here for saying exactly that.

I think his course management may have a lot to do with his waywardness off the tee. When you're spending half your time in the rough, you probably have to develop a game that gets you back on the dance floor in as few shots as possible. Practice makes perfect, they say. My only real criticism of him is the inordinate time he takes. He's not as bad as Jason (all) Day, but he comes close.

newport2

BoardsMember wrote: »

Not wanting to sound churlish or flippant, but Spieth also seems to get extremely luck quite often!

For some reason this always seems to happen to the "in form" golfer I remember being dumbfounded the amount of time Tiger would drive it into the trees and end up in the middle of the fairway, or with a clear shot in. Especially when Harrington was in contention :mad: Maybe it's due to the coverage given, but I agree, it appears those playing well appear to get luckier too.

CMOTDibbler

newport2 wrote: »

For some reason this always seems to happen to the "in form" golfer I remember being dumbfounded the amount of time Tiger would drive it into the trees and end up in the middle of the fairway, or with a clear shot in. Especially when Harrington was in contention :mad: Maybe it's due to the coverage given, but I agree, it appears those playing well appear to get luckier too.

It could also be cause and effect. I think Spieth winning the Open hinged on an extremely lucky and horribly manky three wood out of the rough that came off the heel, low and fadey and ran up on to the green giving him a decent eagle putt which he sank. His round took off after that and he continued that form into the final day. Just a confidence boost when he was least expecting it perhaps.

Rory had a similar (but not as manky ) three wood that got him an eagle at the PGA and a shot in the arm that he was able to capitalise on.