In almost two decades as a professional, in a career which has yielded a career Grand Slam among his on-course earnings of more than €100 million, Rory McIlroy’s swing – on the evidence of his poor showing in the FedEx St Jude Championship – remains something of a work in progress.
The red flag was raised by McIlroy himself ahead of the tournament in Memphis. Before his return to tournament golf after a month’s sojourn, the Northern Irishman explained of working with coach Michael Bannon on one of the swing’s fundamentals:
“I like the feeling of being able to release [the right arm], so rotating enough of my lower body to then be able to feel like I shake hands with the target. Sometimes if I don’t turn enough, my right arm thrusts out the ways, instead of down the line.”
In Memphis, McIlroy, the world number two, was in a different postcode to Scottie Scheffler, the world number one. In fact, 25 strokes separated the two. McIlroy struggled to an eight-over total to languish in 66th place in what started as a 69-man field, while Scheffler’s winning total of 17 under saw the American coast to his second win of the season and cement his place atop the FedEx Cup standings.
RM Block
It was Scheffler’s first PGA Tour win since January, although he had five second places, his emphatic eight-stroke victory was his 21st since the start of 2022, 10 more than McIlroy. The Northern Irishman played with Scheffler for the first two rounds and watched his rival carve out an 11-birdie 61 on Friday.
McIlroy’s frustration with his game was obvious. He didn’t try to hide it. Through the four rounds his consistency was amiss. He had 12 birdies, 14 bogeys and three double bogeys which contributed to his poor finish. The statistics showed further insights. He was ranked 66th in strokes gained off-the-tee, 65th in driving accuracy and 61st in strokes gained putting. His scrambling came in at 50 per cent (15 saves from 30), to be tied-58th.
Such a report card following a tournament had McIlroy headed back to Florida to work with coach Bannon and caddie Harry Diamond before heading back to St Louis in Missouri for the BMW Championship, the penultimate tournament of the PGA Tour’s playoffs with the field of 50 set to be reduced further to 30 for next week’s concluding Tour Championship at East Lake, Atlanta.
Speaking after his final round in Memphis, McIlroy admitted: “Obviously I didn’t come in here with a ton of reps, almost felt like the more the week went on, the more I felt lost with my golf swing. My swing wasn’t in sync and obviously didn’t do a ton of practice coming in.
“I’ll work with Michael and Harry, just try to get the swing into better sync and better flow. Then, I’ll go to Bellerive on Tuesday and obviously try to prepare for that golf course.
“Yeah, to me it’s more about the execution of what I’m doing right now, and it wasn’t there this week. As I said, I’m going to have to put the head down and grind from now until Thursday to try to feel like I have any sort of chance next week.”
“I’m so far away from where I need to be to even feel like I have a chance. I’ve just got to keep working and hope it turns around a little bit.”
McIlroy will be the lone Irish player in the field at Bellerive – where he finished tied-50th in the 2018 US PGA Championship on his only previous visit – after Shane Lowry failed to progress into the leading 50 players on the FedEx Cup standings. The Offalyman is set to refocus his targets back to Europe on the DP World Tour, with the Amgen Irish Open at Doonbeg and the BMW Championship at Wentworth forming an important part of the schedule as he looks to move back into the world’s top 50.
Those events in Doonbeg and Wentworth also form part of McIlroy’s future itinerary, with the FedEx Cup playoffs in St Louis and Atlanta rather more immediate priorities with the aim of getting his swing back into sync the focus of his work in the coming days.
