Rory McIlroy confident about his game ahead of US Open
Monday 6 June 2016 10:26, UK
Rory McIlroy was satisfied that his performance at The Memorial was excellent preparation for the US Open at Oakmont later this month.
McIlroy came up just short on the final day at Muirfield Village after closing with a four-under 68 to post 13 under, although he was once again frustrated by some costly mistakes on his card.
With the leaders struggling in the blustery conditions in Ohio, McIlroy eased himself into contention when he rolled in his third birdie putt of the day at the 11th after clipping a 90-yard wedge to within three feet of the flag.
But he then three-putted from around 90 feet after a conservative tee shot to the par-three 12th, and a poor approach from the fairway on the 14th found the rough on the right of the green and he was unable to get up and down.
McIlroy did bounce back with a birdie at the long 15th, and two excellent putts from 20 and 15 feet on the next two greens made it three straight gains before he salvaged par at the last from 12 feet - completing his round shortly before play was suspended due to an approaching thunderstorm.
"I expect a little bit of a tougher test at Oakmont, but I feel like my game's in good shape," said McIlroy, who won his maiden major title in the US Open at Congressional in 2011.
"Off the tee I was really good this week, and I feel like my putting improved quite a lot.
"I feel like, if you look at the stats from my putting this week, it's actually been really good. So all things considered, it's been a decent week and it's time to get ready for Oakmont in a couple weeks' time."
McIlroy reverted to a conventional putting grip this week having used a cross-handed method since the WGC-Cadillac Championship in March, and he added: "I've never relied on my putting to play my best golf. Obviously, when you're winning tournaments, you need to hole a few putts.
"But I'd be way more comfortable changing my putting grip week to week than I would trying to tinker with my swing or do something with my long game.
"My iron play hasn't been great, I'm just not hitting the ball close enough to the flag with my mid-irons. I need to work on that and try to shallow out the plane a little bit. I'm getting a little steep with my short irons, so that's what I'll be working on primarily from now until Thursday week."
McIlroy will now head to Pennsylvania to take his first ever look at Oakmont Country Club and begin practising for the second major of the year, and he is looking forward to the challenge of taking on one of the world's toughest layouts.
"I'm going to play Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning," he said. "I don't really know much about it. I was actually on the USGA website just looking at the flyovers for the holes and stuff, and I know there's a big road that goes through the middle of it.
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"But it looks like an awesome golf course, it looks unbelievably hard and it will reward very good ball striking. It's going to be tough."
