The Players: What Rory McIlroy can do to turn consistency into wins
Wednesday 11 March 2020 12:17, UK
It's hard to be critical of Rory McIlroy after what we've seen from him over the past few months. He's doing great and he's playing better and more consistent than he's ever played, but there's still that extra percentile that he needs to find in order to become a winner again.
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Winning at this level is really tough and his winning ratio is up there with the best, including four worldwide wins last year. However, his incredibly high level of consistent golf is providing so many opportunities where more wins are being left on the table by him making errors at crucial times on the last day.
He bogeyed three of the first four holes on Sunday when in contention at the Farmers Insurance Open in San Diego, made a triple-bogey on the 6th hole during the final round of the Genesis Invitational when sharing the lead and made two double-bogeys during the front nine of his final round last week at Bay Hill when sharing the lead.
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Eradicating those Sunday mistakes is the difference between him finishing in the top five and him getting the job done on an even more regular basis.
You can't say that McIlroy isn't a serial winner or lacks guile, but he often doesn't hang around at the very top of the leaderboard on Sundays when expected. He needs to make himself a nuisance and have the intimidation factor, letting the guys around him make mistakes in his presence instead. That's what the most serial winner of all-time, Tiger Woods, did.
A great example was the Masters last year, where those around Woods got into trouble during the final day as his presence and aura forced them to make mistakes. He hung around near the top of that leaderboard on the Sunday by minimising his mistakes, taking advantage of the par-fives and letting others make the mistakes.
He then took the lead on 15 and followed that by closing the door on the 16th with a iron shot to a couple of feet, with his display on the last day a masterclass in winning. He ended up with the Green Jacket and although he didn't necessarily outplay the others, he did out-compete them.
McIlroy will be irritated that he hasn't won so far yet this year and there's no doubt he will win again soon. When he cuts out the mistakes and re-establishes that edge on Sundays, then it's only a matter of time before he starts winning again.
He has a chance to defend his title this week at The Players, where the wonderful thing about TPC Sawgrass is that it doesn't suit a particular type of player. McIlroy - one of the longest hitters in the game - won here last year and Jim Furyk, one of the shortest hitters, finished a shot back in second, so it really offers something for everybody.
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Hopefully Tyrrell Hatton's win at Bay Hill is going to set off a train of success for European players in the coming weeks. We see a lot of peer groups in professional golf and I wouldn't be surprised if some of the other European and British players hovering at the top of the leaderboard this week.
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