McIlroy reflects on major season to forget
ST. LOUIS, MO - August 12: Rory McIlroy on the ninth hole during the final round of the 100th PGA Championship held at Bellerive Golf Club on August 12, 2018 in St. Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Montana Pritchard/PGA of America)
Rory McIlroy closed with a rollercoaster round that matched his rollercoaster major season and confessed that he may sit out the first FedEx Cup event to do some soul-searching after seeing his major drought extended to four years at the US PGA.
The Holywood star (29) finished fifth in the Masters, then missed the cut in the US Open at Shinnecock Hills before coming home tied for second behind Francesco Molinari in The Open.
But while a rain-softened Bellerive Country Club looked tailor-made for his game, he was wayward all week and ended up making up the numbers on two-under after a closing 70 that could have been a 75 but for some miraculous short game play.
"It's been a year where I've shown glimpses of what I can do but I just haven't done it often enough," a disappointed McIlroy said.
"It's the major season over and we have to wait a few months to the next one but there's still a lot of golf to play this year and quite a bit to play for.
"There's a lot of room for improvement. My swing really hasn't been where I want it to be. It was pretty good at the start of the year but it's sort of regressed as the season has went on, you start to fall back into some of the habits you don't want to."
McIlroy found three water hazards and just four fairways in yesterday's final round and while he was first for driving distance, he was 77th for driving accuracy and 45th for putting.
"I've missed the ball right and left and that's been the real weakness," he said. "You stand up on a tee shot and it would be nice to know you can eliminate one side of the golf course and this year I haven't felt like that.
"I feel like I've put the work in. It's not like I've been sitting on my ass and not doing anything. I've given myself chances and just haven't quite played the golf I've needed to whenever it's been called upon.
"I need to assess where I'm at. I think the best thing for me to do right now is take a couple of days off and reflect on what I need to do going forward.
"The best thing might be to take that first FedEx Cup week off and work on my game and hopefully come back in a better place.
"I'll do some practice this week and see if I feel ready to go there and play five out of six weeks leading up to the Ryder Cup."
Asked how he would remember the majors in 2018, McIlroy added: "I probably won't. I don't think there was anything all that memorable about it. I guess I had two chances but I didn't really contend the back nine at Augusta.
"I didn't get myself into contention in 2017, don't really think I did in 2016 so I guess it's been a positive from that standpoint."
McIlroy had a truly rollercoaster final round to match his season in the majors, incurring no fewer than four penalty strokes as he hit just three fairways on a hot and sticky morning at Bellerive.
Playing with Frenchman Michael Lorenzo Vera, he found water with his tee shot at the second to drop a shot but then holed an outrageous 50 footer at the fourth and a 14-footer at the next to get back onto the red.
He was dropping again shortly afterwards, however, when he came up short and trickled back into the pond at the 213-yard sixth but got up and down from 126 yards, holing a 12 footer for his bogey.
He was in trouble again at the par-five eighth, where his tee shot sailed left and ricocheted off a tree, 60 yards back down a cart path and rifled his escape through the fairway into the lateral hazard.
He got up and down from 115 yards for par, then chipped in at the ninth to go out in one-under.
The fireworks show continued at the 294 yard 11th where he went for the green but hooked his driver so far left that it caromed around in the crowd, rocketing into flower beds from where he had to take his fourth penalty drop of the round.
Again he got up and down for par but the finish summed up his week.
After missing a four-footer for par at the 15th, he birdied the par-five 17th before another hooked tee shot ended up on a cart path at the 18th and after his fifth drop of the day, this time a free one, he came up short of the green and a missed a seven-footer for par.
If he skips the first FedEx Cup playoff event, the Northern Trust at Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus, he will have a fortnight before the Dell Technologies Championship in Boston to regroup.
But with 241 days to go to the Masters, it's going to be a long winter for the Co Down man.
