Rory McIlroy has decided to accept his game – good and bad – for what it is. That can only be good for the game of golf.
Whether it is a rookie on tour or a veteran we all try little tweaks to gain that extra couple of strokes in a round and Rory is no different.
A new club, a new coach, a new diet, a gym routine – you name it, we’ve all looked at every aspect of our game at some point.
Bryson DeChambeau and Nick Faldo are the exceptions who have made drastic changes and thrived. I could name 15 guys off the top of my head who have struggled and gone back to what brought them success initially.
Rory epitomises the desire to continually improve. He has spoken before of turning professional with the aim of breaking into the top 20 in the world. He did that quickly, but it was not a case of mission accomplished.
The high profile wins, major successes and becoming world number one. They’ve all been ticked off, but still his desire to be better has continued.
That is why it is interesting to hear Rory change tact after winning the CJ Cup on Sunday when he said: “I need to just be me.
“I think for the last few months I was maybe trying to be someone else to try to get better. I sort of realized that being me is enough.”
Reading between the lines I see a guy who has decided after years of trying different things that he has accepted his style of play, his strengths and weaknesses, and is going to focus on accentuating the positives from now on.
In his case that means hitting the high draw and not worrying about trying to fade the ball, an area which is not his strongest.
I know from my own experience, I need my body to be in good shape or else I will struggle to hit the ball the way I normally do.
Number 20 on the @PGATOUR 👊 Thank you for all of the messages. I truly appreciate each of them. pic.twitter.com/pp266uUq8b
— Rory McIlroy (@McIlroyRory) October 18, 2021
Rory is such a popular and endearing figure in the game because of how open he is with people and the fact he wears his heart on his sleeve.
Clearly, from shedding a tear at the Ryder Cup to a forthright interview, Rory is an open book in the game.
Sunday’s win shows “just being me” has worked out pretty well for the multiple major winner with his victory putting him among some illustrious company, as he joined Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Arnold Palmer, Phil Mickelson and Billy Casper in being the only men to win 20 PGA Tour titles before the age of 33 in the last 60 years.
If he is truly accepting his faults, of which there aren’t many, then it should lead to more success in his future.
He wants to be world number one again. He wants Augusta and the Masters ticked off his list to complete the Grand Slam set.
I wouldn’t bet against him achieving both. He is as good as anyone I’ve played with.
We need club regulation in the game
I fully support the decision by the European Tour and the PGA Tour to limit the maximum length of players’ clubs.
From January 1, a new local rule will be introduced to limit clubs, with the exception of putters, to a length of 46 inches.
I back the move for two reasons. Firstly, I don’t want to see golf become a long driving competition and, secondly, the statistics show the longer the club, the more time is spent looking for balls when they are hit offline.
We need some uniformity in the game and golf is one of the few sports which has not had these sort of measures in place before now. But cars are limited in Formula One, while balls are limited in professional tennis.
The news has not been welcomed by everyone with Phil Mickelson among those to speak out, but we need to safeguard our future. The driver will always have its place in the game, but we need to retain some semblance of integrity and fairness.
No Ryder Cup stone should be left unturned
The dust has settled on the Ryder Cup, but I’m amazed at learning Padraig Harrington confirmed the story about his pairings being changed late in the week due to player feedback about how comfortable they were hitting certain balls.
It still blows my mind that, in this era where every facet of the game is factored into these decisions, that something as important as whether players are comfortable playing a different ball was not discovered earlier.
I hope it serves as a lesson for future captains – make sure all bases are covered.
