Thursday 3 March 2016 14:27, UK
Rory McIlroy has confirmed he will put a new putting technique into play in this week's WGC-Cadillac Championship at Doral.
McIlroy has been struggling on the greens over the early stages of the year, and his frustration was clearly evident when he missed three putts from inside five feet during the first round of last week's Honda Classic.
The four-time major champion fared little better on day two and missed the halfway cut by a shot, prompting him to implement a new set-up with the short-stick ahead of the first World Golf Championship event of the season.
McIlroy has changed to a left-hand below right-hand grip, which he has not used since 2008, and he has vowed to stick with the technique whatever the results at Doral.
"It's a drill that I've been doing for a while because I feel like my left hand sort of controls my putting stroke and that's the sort of lead hand for me," said the world No 3. "I felt like, over the past few weeks, my right hand was becoming a little bit too dominant.
"I practiced over the weekend just with left below right and it felt really, really good. The roll of the ball is really good, the contact is much better, and it really just takes my right hand out of it. I'm going to give it a try this week and see where we go with it.
"I used it back my first year on Tour in 2008 for a while. But it's a drill that I've always done, and I've putted a lot just with my left hand. It's one of those things where the drill started to feel a little bit better than the real thing, so I'm just going to stick with it.
"I feel like it's something I'm going to stick with regardless of what the outcome is tomorrow or this week or next week. If it doesn't work right from the get-go tomorrow, you're not going to see me on Friday morning putting conventional again."
McIlroy will play the first two rounds with the two men ahead of him in the world rankings, Jordan Spieth and Jason Day, and he is looking forward to the challenge as well as feeling "the buzz" surrounding the marquee group.
"I've played a lot with Jason and a lot with Jordan over the past few years, but we haven't really played much together in a three-ball," he added. "So the next two days are going to be enjoyable.
"It will be good out there, hopefully a little bit of buzz around that group. So very much looking forward to that."
McIlroy is also determined to eliminate the mistakes that blighted his challenge at PGA National, where he battled hard to remain inside the cut line until he suffered a triple-bogey with four holes of his second round remaining.
"I was making mental errors," Mcllroy added. "I got myself into a decent position on Friday, played the first nine holes pretty solidly, and I hit a good one tee shot on the first hole, which was our 10th. I had 120 yards to the pin in the middle of the fairway with a wedge and I made bogey. I hit a pretty poor second shot just sort of the left side in the fringe.
"But there was a lot of good in there, I made more birdies over the first two days than Rickie (Fowler) did, and Rickie is leading the tournament. So if I can limit my mistakes and not make these silly mental errors and just play a little more?
"I don't know if it's smartly or conservatively or take an extra couple of seconds just to think about what you really need to do with it. I'm a very instinctive player, so I step up and I hit it. Sometimes that can work for me if everything is going with me and I have momentum.
"But if I'm battling and grinding, that can work against me sometimes. It's trying to find a balance, but I still felt like there was enough good in there to at least be there for the weekend. You make nine birdies in the first two rounds, but there's 13 dropped shots in there, it's never too good. So it's really just about trying to limit those mistakes this week."
Don't miss the first WGC event of the season. Live coverage starts Thursday at 6pm on Sky Sports 4 - your home of golf. Or watch from £6.99 without a contract, on NOW TV.
