The way Rory McIlroy has structured his playing schedule this year has meant one tournament has, for the most part, run into another. When the Northern Irishman tees up in this week’s Memorial tournament at Muirfield Village in Dublin, Ohio, it will be his 16th event of 2024 and the second of another four-week stretch.
In McIlroy’s world, these are all big tournaments. In following the RBC Canadian Open – a national open, which puts it high on his list given his repeated suggestions that such tournaments, among them the Amgen Irish Open, deserve greater recognition – with the Memorial, next week’s US Open and then The Travelers, another of the PGA Tour signature events, there is a competitive scorecard in the back pocket more often than there is not.
McIlroy’s form, of late, has certainly benefited from the increased playing schedule. With two wins, in the Zurich Classic (partnering Shane Lowry) and the Wells Fargo, McIlroy – who didn’t have a top-10 until the Texas Open in April – has now claimed four top-10s (including the two successes) in his last seven tournaments.
Certainly, with coach Michael Bannon working with him more frequently stateside, and also benefiting from a side visit to Butch Harmon before the Masters, the statistics as well as the results back up McIlroy’s belief that his driving especially is on song.
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He is ranked fourth in strokes gained tee-to-green and third in strokes gain off-the-tee on the PGA Tour stats for the season and second in total driving. The one great anomaly, though, as it was in the Canadian Open, has been his second round scoring average which, following Ontario, ranked him 115th (averaging 70.5). That would appear to be the area that has to be addressed in the weeks and months ahead, with next week’s US Open the penultimate Major of the year and next month’s Open at Royal Troon thereafter.
Even McIlroy conceded after his final round in Canada – where he finished fourth behind Bob MacIntyre – that the damage was self-inflicted with his driving in the second round: “A good week, three really good rounds, one not so good one. I felt a little out of sorts Friday, did a good range session and sort of rectified it. Overall, three rounds out of four were really ... it was a solid week.”
As he added of the upcoming schedule, with yet another strong performance behind him, “We’re going into a big stretch ... you want to come to tournaments and try to win every single one that you play in, but I think to build off, especially the weekend here, going into Memorial next week, and then obviously going into the US Open the week after, we’ve got a lot of golf coming up, but really nice to see some good signs in my game this weekend.”
McIlroy has been a long-time participant at the Memorial, the tournament hosted by Jack Nicklaus. But he has never won. This will be his 13th time playing in the event (now one of the elevated signature events with a limited field and a $20 million purse), his best finish being tied-fourth in 2016.
As he has put it in the past of the Nicklaus design which has forced him to leave the driver in the bag more often than he’d like, “It takes the driver out of my hand a lot. A lot of the fairways bottle neck at like 330, 340 [yards]. The biggest weapon in my bag isn’t quite the weapon that it is at some other golf courses.”
McIlroy has remained in third in the updated world rankings, with the two men ahead of him, Scottie Scheffler and PGA champion Xander Schauffele back playing this week after short breaks. Shane Lowry, who was tied 33rd in Canada, and Séamus Power, who missed the cut, are also playing.
Leona Maguire missed back-to-back cuts in the Majors this season after failing to make the weekend at the US Open and has opted not to play in this week’s ShopRite Classic on the LPGA where Stephanie Meadow, who withdrew shortly before her first round tee time last week, is in the field.
Lauren Walsh, meanwhile, will look to continue her strong start to her rookie season the LET when she competes in the Volvo Scandinavian Mixed in Sweden – a unique event which features on both the DP World Tour and the LET – while Olivia Mehaffey is the second reserve.
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