Rory McIlroy admits he must forget Masters elation as he faces US Open ‘brute'

Irish Independent

3 days ago

The world number two arrives at fearsome Oakmont Country Club looking to get back on track after a combination of driver woes and post-Masters elation led to a poor showing in the PGA Championship and a missed cut in last week's Canadian Open.
He readily admits he has no clue yet what goals to set for his post-Grand Slam career, but he knows he must be 100 per cent focused and forget about Augusta if he's to have any chance in Pittsburgh.
"If I can't allow myself a little bit of a grace period (after winning the Masters), then why do we do these things?" McIlroy wondered aloud.
Forgetting the Masters is easier said than done, but he sees that as key to righting the ship and competing for the rest of 2025.
"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.
"I worked incredibly hard on my game from October last year all the way up until April this year. It was nice to sort of see the fruits of my labour come to fruition and have everything happen.
"But at the same time, you have to enjoy that. You have to enjoy what you've just accomplished. I certainly feel like I'm still doing that, and I will continue to do that.
"At some point, you have to realise that there's a little bit more golf left to play this season, here, Portrush, Ryder Cup, so those are obviously the three big things that I'm sort of looking at for the rest of the year."
McIlroy's last two starts have helped him come back down to earth, and with Oakmont a relentless beast, he knows he must be at his best mentally to survive.
"Look, it's Oakmont… it's still a big brute of a golf course, and you're going to have to have your wits about you this week all the way throughout the bag, off the tee, into the greens, around the greens," he said.
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Heavy rain last weekend means the course is not quite the brute it was when he had to birdie the last two holes just to shoot 81 in a practice round last week.
"It's very penal if you miss," he said. "Sometimes it's penal if you don't miss. But the person with the most patience and the best attitude this week is the one that's going to win."
He added: "Last Monday felt impossible. I birdied the last two holes for 81. It felt pretty good. It didn't feel like I played that bad.
"This morning, it was a little softer. The pins aren't going to be on three or four per cent slopes all the time. If you put it in the fairway, it's certainly playable.
"But then you just have to think about leaving your ball below the hole and just trying to make as many pars as you can. You get yourself in the way of a few birdies; that's a bonus."
After hitting a driver to 10 feet at the 301-yard, par-four 17th, he's clearly close to where he wants to be in the driver department after a weekend spent testing.
As to what he learned, he quipped: "I learned that I wasn't using the right driver."
Despite all that, it remains to be seen if he can truly put his Masters win aside and compete.
Asked about his five-year plan, he said: "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.
"Look, you dream about the final putt going in at the Masters, but you don't think about what comes next.
"I think I've always been a player that struggles to play after a big event after I win whatever tournament.
"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 relish the fact that you've achieved a goal.
"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."
Yes, he has unfinished US Open business, but he can't let that cloud his thinking.
"I obviously want to play well here," he said. "I didn't like what happened last year. I didn't like what happened in LACC. And I feel like I'm playing US Open venues much better at this point in my career than I ever have.
"So I don't want to go in there and feel like I want revenge. I just want to go out and play my golf. If I can do that, hit the shots and stay patient, hopefully I'll be in there on Sunday."