OAKMONT, Pa. — He’s the Masters champion and one of the game’s best-ever players, so of course there is going to be considerable attention paid to Rory McIlroy.
But you’d be hard-pressed to think after Augusta that he would go from a prohibitive favorite and serious contender in this year's remaining major championships to a player with numerous question marks surrounding his mind and his game.
In a matter of weeks.
McIlroy himself acknowledged last week at the RBC Canadian Open that he needs to set new goals. A Masters hangover of sorts was always a possibility, especially the manner in which he won and the career Grand Slam burden lifted.
That was, however, expected to free him up to attain more greatness. There was talk that he’d win the PGA at Quail Hollow, where he won four times; and the U.S. Open at Oakmont, a severe test well suited to a great driver. And next month at Royal Portrush, a few miles from his boyhood home.
Instead, it might be a matter of shaking off the joys of victory and getting refocused first.
“You have this event in your life that you’ve worked towards and it happens, sometimes it’s hard to find the motivation to get back on the horse and go again,” McIlroy said prior to the Canadian Open.
Then he went out and missed the cut, shooting a second-round 78 while struggling with his driver.
The aftermath of his PGA Championship troubles still linger, too.
The controversy that lingered concerning his failed driver test has, in some places, been inaccurately described as some sort of nefarious activity rather than the routine but yet disruptive occurrence that has left McIlroy trying to work out issues with his driver.
McIlroy said last week that he was subject to random testing in March and his driver passed. As many have noted, having a driver that approaches the line measured for “spring-like effect” is not some magic wand. If a club goes over the desired limit, it typically means it is also close to caving in or breaking. Nobody wants that, especially the week of a tournament.
When McIlroy’s driver failed at the PGA, it meant he had to work out getting a new one ready. And the process has not been easy.
“It’s hard with the driver, like with the one I had been playing with previously, when I missed with it, I was a little bit left,” McIlroy said after his first round in Canada. “Then my miss with this one is a little bit right. It’s just trying to figure that out and manage it a little bit.
“It’s a nice feeling to get up the middle of the fairway and fully release it and know it’s not going to go left on you. Yeah, a little bit of practice this afternoon and get ready for tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow” didn’t go very well. McIlroy shot 78 including a quadruple bogey. And clearly the driver issues were bothering him.
“I came here obviously with a new driver thinking that that sort of was going to be good and solve some of the problems off the tee, but it didn’t,” McIlroy said. “Obviously going to Oakmont, what you need to do more than anything else there is hit fairways. Still sort of searching for the sort of missing piece off the tee. Obviously for me, when I get that part of the game clicking, then everything falls into place for me. Right now that isn’t. Yeah, that's a concern going into [the U.S. Open].”
McIlroy headed home to Florida and was presumably working on his driver issues all weekend before getting to Oakmont to renew preparations. Last week, he spent a day here and acknowledged the difficulty. The uncertainty about his equipment can’t help.
Nor can the mental challenge of recharging after such an emotional Masters victory.
The thinking among many was that his Masters win would lift all the obstacles after going 11 years without winning a major.
Perhaps it simply presented a new one.
Niemann and the majors
Joaquin Niemann won for the fourth time in eight LIV Golf events this year when he shot a final-round 63 at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club to surge past Graeme McDowell and capture the LIV Golf Virginia event.
The validity of such wins typically comes under question due to LIV Golf’s limited 54-player, 54-hole format but it certainly isn’t nothing to beat the likes of Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm, Brooks Koepka and other formidable players in LIV’s lineup.
Niemann’s win was his sixth overall on LIV Golf, the most of any player, surpassing the five won by Koepka. By leading the LIV Golf points race, he earned a spot in the U.S. Open and because he’s already exempt for next month’s British Open, someone else in the top five not exempt—currently Sergio Garcia—will get that spot following the LIV Golf Dallas tournament later this month.
Now the trick is to convert some of this good golf into major success. A strong final round last month at the PGA Championship saw Niemann tie for eighth, the first time he’s had a top-10 in a major.
“It’s something that is always in my mind,” Niemann said after his victory. “I know there’s some pressure behind me performing here and not having good results in majors. I feel like that’s just a learning process. At the end of the day, it’s still a golf tournament. Probably I feel sometimes a little bit more uncomfortable in certain situations, but I feel like I’m learning to be better in those situations.”
Niemann, who is still just 26, said he was inspired watching French Open tennis during a rain delay Sunday and said that helped fuel his push when play resumed.
“I feel like I got some inspiration from Carlos Alcaraz, to be honest,” he said. “I was watching his game, and it was pretty good to see that he was three match points of losing the match, and being able to bring that back into the match and being able to win, it was pretty cool. I felt like I was able to sit down in the locker room by myself, so I was just chilling there in the locker room and watching Carlos Alcaraz making that. It was pretty cool.”
Now it’s on to Oakmont and another chance at a major championship. His best previous finish in four U.S. Opens was a tie for 23rd in 2020 at Winged Foot. He was not in the field last year at Pinehurst, where DeChambeau won.
“I feel like it’s just another golf tournament,” Niemann said. “I’ve got to figure out stuff in my game and got to improve, like I said before, my driving. I feel like next week is going to be a good challenge. I feel like this is going to be a good preparation for what’s coming.
“I actually haven’t been to Oakmont before. It’s going to be my first time. I’ve got to go there on Monday, see what it is, and then see what I expect. More than that, I don’t have many more expectations.”
Last-minute entries
The U.S. Open field was filled Monday as the latest Official World Golf Ranking meant a few players made their way into the championship if they were not previously exempt.
Ryan Fox, who won the Canadian Open in a playoff over Sam Burns on Sunday, was one of them. Fox also won the Myrtle Beach tournament last month but because that event was not a full-point FedEx Cup allocation, the USGA's two-win exemption was not in play.
Fox moved up 43 spots to No. 32 with the victory. Cameron Young and Bud Cauley also qualified at Nos. 56 and 58, respectively. Both players had advanced to the U.S. Open last week through the 36-hole final qualifier in Columbus, but the OWGR ranking took precedence.
The USGA left room in the field for the potential of OWGR players qualifying and thus five alternates from final qualifying were added: Takumi Kanaya, Doug Ghim, Chase Johnson, Eric Cole and Riki Kawamoto.
The changes Monday brought the 156-player field to 87 players who were exempt, meaning 69 made it through qualifying.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as After His Masters Triumph, Rory McIlroy Is Struggling to Recharge His Mind and His Game.