“I’m ready to be a pure golfer again”

Rory McIlroy longs to “be a pure golfer again”, with Paul McGinley claiming his Irish compatriot’s missed cut here at the Players Championship was due to “all the bullets” he took for the PGA Tour.

Friday’s thunderstorms meant McIlroy had to return on Saturday morning to complete his second round, and although he played his remaining eight holes in a under one, he still missed three shots to reach the final two rounds, with one 73, which put him in 98th place on five-over.

The performance was clearly not what he expected after finishing second at Sunday’s Arnold Palmer Invitational, and his disappointment was beyond not being able to win that $4.5 million first prize. fight dollars.

This was his last stroke play start ahead of the Masters in four weeks, where he will attempt a ninth career grand slam finish. He is busy, particularly in terms of his driving, which has been unusually sloppy as wear and tear forced him to retire his former driver.

But first he needs to rest. McIlroy acted as the unofficial spokesman for the radical overhaul of the tour, instituted in response to the LIV Golf threat.

As a policy board member, he attended a seven-hour meeting last Tuesday and more than anyone else – including, it must be said, Commissioner Jay Monahan – he faced the press to justify the controversial changes coming next season will see eight designated events with limited 70-78 fields, with no trimming and a minimum of $20 million.

McGinley doesn’t think that’s fair to the number 3 in the world. “It’s not Rory’s Tour, it’s not Tiger’s Tour, it’s not Jay Monahan’s Tour,” McGinley said on the Golf Channel.

“This tour belongs to the players and if that’s going to work and these new ‘designated events’ are going to work, everyone has to row behind. You can’t just have one spokesperson and let him take all the bullets, everyone has to be there to support and propel this ship forward.

The story goes on

‘I may have sacrificed time on some of these other things.’

“One of the hallmarks of his golf over the past 14 months has been his ability to focus. We’ve been admiring this from afar, with everything that’s going on and him at the center. It’s pretty incredible what he’s achieved. I just think Rory is tired and the battery is dead. We’ve seen some clumsiness from him here, and that’s a sign you’re not focused.

McIlroy acknowledged his fatigue and agreed that McGinley’s comments were “fair.” “I’d love to play golf again,” he said. “Look, it’s been a busy couple of weeks and, to be honest, it’s been six or eight months that’s been very busy. But now it’s all sort of announced and the wheels have been set in motion, so things should calm down from here.

“It’s just time management. The golfing out here, that’s fine, but it’s just more of the time at home to make sure you’re preparing, to make sure you’re doing everything you can to be ready when you show up these weeks. So I might have sacrificed a bit of time on some of these other things. Like I said, I’m ready to go back to being a pure golfer.”

McIlroy will visit Augusta for a reconnaissance trip next week and then attend the WGC Match Play in Austen. “[It’s] I’m just making sure my game is in shape and that I have all the shots for Augusta,” he said. “So I’m going to ramp up for a couple of days and reacquaint myself with the track. See I wish I didn’t have to bet on a new driver and I wish I could just use the old one but yeah it is what it is.

“And it’s not as big a problem in Augusta as it is here. There’s a bit more room off the tee, and in fairness I was trying to push the driver a little too far up the fairway here, rather than just dropping a few clubs and hitting three-wood or five-wood or two- iron or whatever.

“But you don’t want to have a big failure in your pocket. Check out the ride I met on the 18th [that led to a closing bogey five], and that’s way too wide for a miss. I have to work on things like that.”

McIlroy played alongside Scottie Scheffler and Jon Rahm, and the top three players had contrasting experiences. Rahm retired before the second round due to a stomach problem. McIlroy missed his first cut in seven months. Scheffler went into the third round in second with sevens, two behind Canada’s Adam Svensson.

Scheffler, the reigning Masters champion, knows that if he finishes in the top five, he will take over the world No. 1 ranking again.