Oh Dear ! Once again, and despite a considerable amount of hype, Rory McIlroy has messed up a great chance to win the US Masters golf tournament.
Having managed to get himself in a strong position going into the final round and after claiming a share of the lead in the early stages of that round, McIlroy's challenge faded away as his main opponents at least kept their heads above water. In the end, McIlroy finished 6 shots behind the leader in joint fifth place.
The eventual winner, Patrick Reed, had a difficult time but still managed to return a final round of 71, 1 under par. Jordan Spieth mounted a phenomenal challenge to return an 8 under par round of 64 and Rickie Fowler managed a 67; Jon Rahm returned a 69 to finish 4th but McIlroy could manage no better than a rather hopeless 74, one of the poorest rounds of a day when sub-70 was the going rate. Clearly, something is amiss with McIlroy's game.
McIlroy is a powerful hitter and can produce some moments of brilliance but he is inconsistent and erratic. From the tee, he usually hits the ball as hard as he possibly can, looking for distance rather than anything else and, too frequently, he finds trouble; yesterday, he hit drives wildly into the trees on several occasions, losing any chance of picking up shots. In like fashion, his play from the fairways, and the trees, saw him thrash the ball for all it was worth rather than playing for position; the results were there for all to see.
On the greens, he seemed to be trying to get the ball into the hole as quickly as possible and failed to take adequate time to assess his putts; the result was several short putts missed and shots thrown away. In all, he played like an inexperienced amateur rather than a seasoned professional. Sadly for him, his opponents were the exact opposite.
McIlroy went away talking about frustration and things learnt, but the real issue is temperament. Every good, or lucky, shot was greeted with a swagger but one could see the adrenaline taking over; 2 good shots in a row was always unlikely. It's all very well hitting drives of 350 yards but it's no good if they land in unplayable positions. By all means look to play quickly, but not so quickly that an opponent's tardiness leads to frustration or that there is insufficient consideration of each and every shot.
If he is ever to win another major tournament, let alone the Masters, McIlroy must learn to slow down a bit, calm down a bit and power down a bit. If he does that, he could be unbeatable.
No comments:
Post a Comment