PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Florida – Rory McIlroy missed the 10-shot reduction on Friday at the Players’ Championship and it wasn’t even the most surprising aspect of his day.
After shooting 79-75 at TPC Sawgrass, McIlroy lamented the swing issues he pursued to the speed of pursuit – and the length of Bryson DeChambeau – last fall.
When asked what he was frustrated with, McIlroy paused long before answering.
“Probably the problems with the swing and where it all comes from, probably in October last year, doing a little bit of speed training, they started to be sucked into those things, the swing became flat, long and too rotational,” he said. he said. I added some speed and hit the ball harder, but what he did for my overall swing was probably not a good thing, so I’m struggling to give it up. That’s why I’m frustrated. ”
When asked why he would do that, given that he remains one of the longest drivers in the game – McIlroy placed first in the field of two-round driving distance at Players – he admitted that DeChambeau’s increased length was a factor.
“I would be lying if I said it had nothing to do with what Bryson did at the US Open,” McIlroy said of DeChambeau, who won the US Open in September at the Winged Foot with 6 strokes. “I think a lot of people have seen that and said, ‘Well, if that’s how they’re going to set up golf courses in the future, it helps. It really helps.
“The only thing people don’t appreciate is how good Bryson is outside. Not only because of how vertical it is, but also because its short irons are longer than standard, so it can get a little higher speed than other boys.
“And I thought that being able to gain more speed is a good thing, and maybe just – to the detriment of a little bit of my swing, I got there, but I just need to be able to narrow it down a bit. ”
McIlroy has not won the HSBC Champions since November 2019 and, in 20 tournaments since the June restart, has only two top five rankings, with two missed reductions.
“It’s going to take a while,” said McIlroy, who has only one event scheduled before the Masters, WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play in two weeks. “As with anything, the slightest change in your swing will take place. to feel uncomfortable for a while.
“It simply came to our notice then. I go back to September last year, October is where it looked and felt pretty good, so it’s just a matter of – maybe I don’t delete things, I’d still like to keep the speed and what I did – but simply they do not make the oscillations that produce a kind of speed. “