Rory McIlroy credits Canadian Open timing for US Open consistency
Rory McIlroy will use this week's RBC Canadian Open as a key warm-up for the upcoming US Open.
The Northern Irishman, who won the Canadian tournament in 2019 and 2022, has been a consistent contender at the US Open in recent years, recording six consecutive top-10 finishes.
'I love that it's the week leading into the US Open,' McIlroy told a press conference on Wednesday.
'I've had six top 10s in a row (at the US Open), so there's something to that.'
McIlroy's grouping for the first two rounds includes 2023 European Ryder Cup teammate Ludvig Aberg and PGA Tour University graduate Luke Clanton.
He also praised the university programme for helping younger players make the professional leap.
'I think this PGA Tour U programme is so good. If it was up to me, I'd give the college kids five or 10 spots on Tour instead of just one,' said McIlroy.
'I think to bring that new blood through each and every year I think is so important for the Tour, and to see Luke and some of his other peers take advantage of that opportunity and get their cards and come out here and play well, it's awesome to see.'
Earlier this week, the Masters champion admitted he was 'p***ed off' that news of his driver failing technical standards made headlines before last month's US PGA Championship.
Two days before the tournament was due to start the world number two had the club pulled from his bag after official testing showed it had crossed the threshold, the so-called 'trampoline effect' when the face of the club becomes more springy.
Failures are supposed to remain confidential, as no blame is attached to the player in question but the news broke on Friday evening.
World number one Scottie Scheffler's driver also failed the test but that never became public until he volunteered the information at his winner's press conference after securing his third major.
As a result McIlroy, uncharacteristically, declined to speak to the media over all four days and left Quail Hollow without uttering a word in public after finishing joint-47th.
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'I was a little p***ed off because I knew that Scottie's driver had failed but my name was the one that was leaked. It was supposed to stay confidential,' said McIlroy.
'I didn't want to get up there and say something that I regretted, either, because I'm trying to protect Scottie – I don't want to mention his name – I'm trying to protect TaylorMade. I'm trying to protect the USGA, PGA of America, myself.
'With Scottie's stuff, that's not my information to share. That process is supposed to be kept confidential and it wasn't for whatever reason. That's why I was pretty annoyed at that.'
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