Rory McIlroy struggles despite recording success in recent months
Rory McIlroy, who had been sensational for the last nine months, displayed slumping performances in the last two tournaments he played and missed the cuts.
It was a shock for the golf community around the world, watching McIlroy falter in each of the tournaments, especially after such a good run in the past few months.
Prior to the Players Championship this year, McIlroy participated in 14 events, since September, collectively on both the PGA and European Tours and recorded two wins along with five second-place finishes and three times placed third on the leaderboards.
In addition to that, he posted 12 top-five finishes in the 14 events, while his worst performance came in the Masters Tournament where he tied for the 40th position.
There was a time when the golf commentators started believing that the world of golf has found another Tiger Woods, but this time, from Europe.
However, McIlroy now appears to have lost his charisma. He appeared in the Players Championship and missed cut after recording 72 and 76 in the opening two rounds.
It was not that unusual as McIlroy has never succeeded in making the cut at the TPC Sawgrass in the past too.
However, he posted a score of 74 in the opening round of the BMW PGA Championship followed by a poor 79 on day two to miss the cut for the second consecutive time.
“Of course my pride is hurt,” he said after missing the cut at the Wentworth Club. “It's not nice to play like this, particularly two events in a row. I need to find something in time for the Memorial Tournament in America next week. I need competitive rounds
before the US Open”.
According to the golf commentators, McIlroy made some blunders while making putts in both the events that are a major cause of his grim performances.
He admitted after the BMW PGA Championship that he was not able to completely focus on his strokes and the lack of practice is putting a negative impact on his game.
“Maybe I have taken my eye off the ball and haven't been practising as hard as I might,” he said.
Right after missing the cut, he did not fly back home, and decided to stay at the venue to do some practice prior to participating in the Memorial tournament in the following week.
“I'm staying here and I'll be on that practice ground bright and early,” he said. “I need to put in some hard hours on the range so I can get my game back to the level it was at earlier in the season”.
As a result of two missed cuts, he also lost the number one spot in the Official World Golf Rankings and moved down to the second spot with Luke Donald reclaiming the spot with a win at the Wentworth Club.
With the US Open scheduled to be held just three weeks from now, McIlroy needs to work really hard to get back to form that allowed him to become the best golfer in the world.
In order to return back to form, he has also announced to change his schedule this year and committed to participate in the FedEx St. Jude Classic, slated to start one week before the US Open.
Therefore, both the Memorial and Jude Classic can play a crucial role in bringing back the form he needs in order to successfully defend the title in the second major event of the year.
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