2 days ago
Paul McGinley concerned after Rory McIlroy's ‘very worrying' US Open press conference
'It was very worrying looking at his press conference there,' MccGinley said on Golf Channel's "Live From" show. 'His eyes weren't alive. The energy was not there.
'He certainly didn't have the pointy elbows the way we saw coming into the Masters. He was a man on a mission, he was a man on a bounce, he was a man out to prove something. 'Get out of my way, here I come. I've got something to accomplish.' You could see that and feel the energy.
'You don't see it at the moment. I know from my own experience, when you win tournaments, you check out. You don't feel the same. You want to be there and you put in the energy but something inside you is just missing.'
McGinley added: 'I'm no psychologist but it looks like the air has been sucked out of him a little since that, not just in the way he's played but in his press conferences.
'It's very un-Rory-like in his press conferences to have such low energy. There will be a reset at some stage and it doesn't look like it'll come this week. His team are saying he's playing okay.
'But this is not normal Rory. This is not when he's at his best in my opinion. I think he's at his best when he's p****d off and he's out to prove something following off a big loss or something that went wrong.'
McIlroy was upbeat throughout his two nine-hole practice rounds with Shane Lowry on Tuesday and Wednesday and looked to be hitting the ball well.
While he missed the occasional fairway, he also hit some brilliant drives and approach shots and spent time after both morning practice rounds hitting balls on the range with every club in the bag.
The Co Down man admitted in his press conference that getting back to work after winning the Masters was a challenge but that he couldn't afford to relax this week.
'Look, you dream about the final putt going in at the Masters, but you don't think about what comes next,' McIlroy said.
'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 sort of 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.'
