Rory heads for Oakmont at a delicate time in his career

RTÉ News​

a day ago

In the aftermath of his joyous, emotionally charged Masters victory and completion of the career grand slam just nine weeks ago, there emerged a too-hastily cobbled together narrative that Rory McIlroy might be freed up to win multiple future majors to embolden his legend in the game.
What was not dwelt upon nearly as much in the days and weeks which followed one of the great achievements in modern men's golf was the competing and opposite possible story arc that having scaled the top of a personal mountain, what was there left to achieve?
It's that second theme which has immediately emerged as a focus of some attention after a passage of uninspired play from McIlroy since the end of April.
In essence, it's a delicate and potentially pivotal time in his career as he comes down from the high he's enjoyed over the last two months and seeks to regain motivation with a new set of goals.
While there are stories in the history of the game of players like David Duval and Johnny Miller seeing the view from the top of their personal achievement mountain and not knowing where to go next, equally there's the accomplishments of Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player - who all clearly sought next unconquered peak after a landmark victory.
"Going and grinding on the range for three or four hours every day is maybe a little tougher than it used to be," McIlroy said prior to his Canadian Open missed cut last week where he finished tied 149th of 156 competitors.
He expanded on that theme in his US Open preview press conference on Tuesday of this week.
"I think it (the task) is trying to have a little bit of amnesia and forget about what happened six weeks ago. Then just trying to find the motivation to go back out there and work as hard as I've been working. At some point, you have to realise that there's a little bit more golf left to play this season - here, Royal Portrush, Ryder Cup."
The immediate stern question for McIlroy posed by the challenge of taking on the statistically most difficult US Open venue of all might be coming at an inconvenient time, with well-publicised problems adjusting to a new driver in his bag.
On the range and in practice rounds this week at Oakmont, he has looked quite sharp but he himself knows that having a US Open scorecard in hand in round one will change everything.
"I like what I saw in practice this week but practice rounds and driving ranges are a bit different to tournament golf, but I'm slowly building confidence," McIlroy said.
All of which seems a bit tenuous in terms of preparation compared to the place that the championship favourite Scottie Scheffler occupies this week.
Since he finished fourth behind McIlroy around Augusta National in mid-April, he has won three times, including the USPGA Championship at Quail Hollow.
He took that title by five strokes and his three wins since the Masters have been by a cumulative total of 17 shots.
There's also the tantalising prospect of Scheffler, should he win here, heading to Royal Portrush for the Open next month with the possibility of joining the career grand slam club.
That's a long way from being a far-fetched scenario given his recent form.
Oakmont also clearly fits his eye because it is a tee-to-green challenge among the hardest in the world of golf, let alone just US Opens.
Statistically, Scheffler is by far the best overall ball-striker in terms of strokes gained against the field in each round this year. On average, he's a full shot ahead of the next best player Sepp Straka. McIlroy is, incidentally, third in that category.
The 28-year-old Texan is also above average in driving distance, second in overall proficiency in scrambling (on and around the green) and is also now in the top 15% of the putting stats which used to be his one weak point.
In other words, he's got all the appearance of being the complete US Open kind of player right now and few, if any, would deny that he is the most mentally strong golfer seen in the men's game since Tiger Woods.
In terms of what Oakmont asks of a player hoping to be in contention, Shane Lowry also ticks a lot of boxes.
Not only was he a runner-up at Oakmont nine years ago, when he had a four-shot lead entering the final round, he also is among the best tee-to-green players on the PGA Tour in 2025 and is second only to Scheffler in the 'Greens Approach' play category.
He drives it straight and long enough to contend and his consistency this season with two runner-up finishes on tour in 2025, points to a potentially strong campaign on a course that fits his eye.
"I like the look of the place but I'm always on the edge of my anxious self where I want it so much," he said on Tuesday after a nine-hole early morning practice with McIlroy.
"My confidence levels can't be too high and I've got to bring myself down to earth and throw my expectations away on that first tee and give it a run.
"2016 (when he was joint runner-up) will always be a 'what if'. I'd an unbelievable chance to win and I'd love to have a US Open (trophy) along side my Claret Jug and you never know, this might be the week I could do it."
There are of course a myriad of other contenders and the form of defending US Open champion Bryson DeChambeau - who has been outside the top six in just one of the last seven majors - cannot be ignored.
John Rahm showed strongly at the USPGA Championship last month before a dramatic fade-away slump over the last three holes.
However, his stoic press conference response to that setback was of a player apparently determined to restore a reputation which scaled a peak with his 2021 US Open victory at Torrey Pines and subsequent ascension to world No 1.
No one though has Scheffler's level of credentials this week.
As a callow 19-year-old amateur in 2016, he opened with a 69 to occupy a place in the top 10 after round one and while he missed the cut that week, he has since become the kind of efficient ball-striking, resilient-minded golf machine that the US Open test sets out to identify.