Rory McIlroy has unfinished business at U.S. Open, but can he overcome his Masters hangover?

USA Today

2 days ago

Rory McIlroy has unfinished business at U.S. Open, but can he overcome his Masters hangover?
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Rory McIlroy on motivation after Masters win
Rory McIlroy admits he didn't expect how hard it would be to find motivation after his Masters triumph.
USGA
Rory McIlroy's performance has been inconsistent since his Masters win.
Commentators and analysts have expressed concern about McIlroy's lack of motivation and focus.
McIlroy admitted to struggling with motivation after achieving a major goal.
OAKMONT, Pa. — On his way to winning six major titles, Nick Faldo learned first-hand the razor-thin line between the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.
The three-time Masters champion served as lead analyst for Sky TV's coverage of the Masters in Europe and in his pithy style mused during the back nine on Sunday that one great shot would win it and one poor shot would lose it for McIlroy. Faldo wasn't wrong except for one miscalculation. 'He had about six of each,' he said. 'Rory really put us through the ringer.'
Indeed. And then Faldo turned philosophical about McIlroy's dramatic sudden-death victory over Justin Rose in April to claim the Green Jacket, his first fifth major and first in nearly 11 years, and the sixth golfer to complete the career Grand Slam. 'That winning putt goes in and he's become an absolute legend and walking in fields of gold – to steal an old Sting line,' Faldo said. 'But if Rose had holed and Rory hits a perfect putt and it lips out his life would've been ruined. Isn't it ridiculous?'
Almost as silly as the knee-jerk reaction that with the pressure lifted, McIlroy would suddenly run the table at majors. Instead, McIlroy has teed it up four timed since slipping on the Green Jacket and finished T-12 at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, a team event with partner Shane Lowry, T-7 at the Truist Championship, a pedestrian T-47 at the PGA Championship and missed the cut last week at the RBC Canadian Open, which included a second-round 78. Golf Channel Brandel Chamblee judged McIlroy's most recent performance as perhaps 'the worst performance we've ever seen out of Rory.'
Faldo, for one, is none too surprised McIlroy has fallen flat since reaching the summit of his personal Mount Everest. 'You climb Everest you don't exactly turn around and go back again,' Faldo said. 'You can't flip a switch at majors unless you're Tiger. When you give that much emotion, I don't think you just go I'll gear up and off I go.'
That's been typical of McIlroy throughout his career after a big win, he said, and he's giving himself some grace.
'I always struggle to show up with motivation the next week because you've just accomplished something and you want to enjoy it and you want to sort of relish the fact that you've achieved a goal,' he explained. 'I think chasing a certain goal for the better part of a decade and a half, I think I'm allowed a little bit of time to relax a little bit. But here at Oakmont, I certainly can't relax this week.'
McIlroy noted he had dreamed about the final putt going in at the Masters. But he never dreamed about what comes next. So far, he has been too busy celebrating to plot new goals to chase beyond his pursuit this week of the U.S. Open, next month's British Open at Royal Portrush in his native Northern Ireland and winning an away Ryder Cup in New York in September. Asked about his five-year plan, McIlroy puffed air and answered, 'I don't have one. I have no idea. I'm sort of just taking it tournament by tournament at this point. Yeah, I have no idea.'
After skipping speaking to the media after all four rounds at the PGA Championship, McIlroy remained salty when asked about what TaylorMade driver he planned to use at Oakmont. 'Come out and watch me hit balls, and you'll see.'
Discussing McIlroy's uneven performance since the Masters on Golf Channel's 'Live From,' Chamblee and fellow commentator Paul McGinley both expressed concern about McIlroy heading into a demanding test such as Oakmont.
'It was very worrying looking at his press conference. His eyes weren't alive. The energy was not there. He didn't have the pointy elbows,' McGinley said. 'It looks like something has gone out of him since the Grand Slam, like the air has gone out of him, not just in how he's played but in his press conferences. There will be a reset at some stage but it doesn't look like it's coming this week. This is not normal Rory.'
'I think the technical and the mental are intertwined. It is the lack of motivation, the lack of pressure, the lack of a focus on a clearly defined goal that leads to technical issues. Until he finds purpose again, he's never going to be what he was at the Masters,' Chamblee contended. 'He wouldn't say the things he's said (in press conferences) in a team atmosphere. The coach wouldn't let him play. If he said what he said, the coach would put him on the bench, (saying,) 'You can't let this team down. You can't let this city down. You can't let the people investing in this team down.' '
McIlroy has been the nearly man of late at the U.S. Open, finishing runner-up the last two years, including squandering a two-shot lead with four holes to go last year, and hasn't been outside the top 10 in his last six starts at the U.S. Open. How will he overcome his Masters hangover?
'I think it's trying to have a little bit of amnesia and forget about what happened six weeks ago,' he said. 'Then just trying to find the motivation to go back out there and work as hard as I've been working.'