Rory McIlroy - 4 Time Major Winner

Ah look I get he can be frustrating but so long as him Lowry and Power are playing golf in a major, or any other Irish players I'll be doing my best to find any positives to continue to support.

3 off now.

First time in a while - I wont go along with the Rory was close talk --- he was wild off the tee, missed greens by miles and his putting was poor - that was a backdoor top 10 - nowhere near the players at the top. A long way off.

Don't think I'd quite go so far as back door top 10, but certainly a "never really in contention of winning" top 10 😀. For me, I think the tournament was over for him when he hit that shot on the 2nd. I mean, you won't find a bigger fan of Rory than me, but f--k me, there's 15 handicappers would have played that shot better. As Jack has often said, missing a green like that with a wedge is like missing your mouth with a fork, and he does it far to regularly for it to be just one of those bad shots that can happen. Literally no excuse IMHO. Stick that in close and he's now only 3 off the lead with 16 holes to go, a totally different ball game. Someone like a Connors or Hovland was never going to worry Koepka, probably nobody was going to anyway, but Rory's name high on the leaderboard early on might have had an effect.

I dunno, maybe Brooks now being the best player of his generation will spur Rory on to get the finger out and sort out whatever issues are going on with his game and/or equipment. Or maybe he doesn't really give a F anymore, who knows.

Agreed. And look, maybe that's just who he is now, more Seve than Faldo. Maybe he'll always just be the mercurial talent that once or twice a year turns in a virtuoso performance and blows the field away in the Canadian Open or something. I hope not and I hope we do see a version of the Rory of 2011-2014 sometime again. Even Rory of 2019/pre pandemic 2020 would do.

Maybe I'm being too negative, after all he did finish top 10 in a Major while hitting it sideways, so there's that I guess !

i suppose the only positive he can take away is that he improved from the masters, copped on a bit with the media stuff and maybe just maybe he might focus on the golf and let the pga worry about liv.

Watched a decent amount of coverage of his round. He played well overall and wasn't far off a couple more birdies.

The triple was from a poor tee shot that left about as bad of a lie as possible. Tbf it's bad luck. The ball was almost hip height in pure cabbage and he was fortunate to get out. His next lie was crap also and he had no chance of holding the green. Once at the green he'll be pissed off with his pitch/flop and particularly the chip. The rough is very penal so he was absolutely nailed on for a bogey or even a double imo. A triple is poor but it's not a capitulation. Spieth had similar to deal with for his 2nd/3rd but he landed short in a bunker which was much easier up/down for bogey.

Rory flubbed a few scoring chances too inside wedge distance. The likes of Scheffler/Rahm/Koepka would be hoovering up birdies in those situations. I'd be more worried at that, than the triple.

I wouldn't over react about one bad hole. With the US Open in mind, I would look positively on his round for the most part. This is his first tournament of three in a row too.

Although Jack's words about Rory were quite prophetic a few days ago : "I don't know whether his is a constant lack of being able to keep that concentration for the whole thing or not, because sometimes he is the par, par, par, double, 8.

"He does that sometimes. And I said, 'Why, Rory? Why does that happen?' And ... he doesn't know."

No idea but the caddy thing is completely personal in what you feel you need. Some guys need a caddy to read a putt 5 times and check the position of the stars. Others need someone to tell them to go for it and maybe lack a bit of confidence. He was #1 not so long ago and he's always a threat. Everyone and Rory believe that he has more potential tucked away that's not being realised. I don't think Harry Diamond or a different caddy can make him any better with wedges, putting or mental resilience.

On the other side of the coin. I did laugh quite a bit at Bo Martin standing there stone-faced while Hatton was going bananas at everything. Sky/NBC left the mic on for ages and kept apologising for the language. Although towards the end of the round, it was muted immediately after every shot he took. I always thought that the PGA would introduce some sort of fining system for bad language. They broadcast before the watershed (locally at least). Nonetheless, it constantly amuses me that the "impossible" always seems to happen for poor ould Tyrrell.

Nice bounce back today, game seems to be improving.

I doubt two golfers from the same club have ever won a European Tour and PGA tour events on the same day. Serious chance of it today. Tom McKibbin has a two shot lead with six to play in the European Open and of course Rory leads the Memorial.

That's some chip in for a 2

Sloppy play from Rory and going backwards now. A familiar pattern.

Rory needs to pay Steve Williams 1 million dollars to come out of retirement(Rory idolises Tiger, and Steve won umpteen majors with tiger). He needs a grilzed, Wiley, Win freak to manage him shot by shot. Someone who knows how to control or push or steady a Thoroughbred( especially when it it is not firing on all 4 cylinders).