The irony can’t be lost on Rory McIlroy that, as he puts a prototype Nike Covert VRS cavity-backed driver with an adjustable hosel into his bag for this 142nd edition of the British Open, a weapon he hopes will cure his ills off the tee, there are a great many others – among them Phil Mickelson and Jason Day – who won’t use a driver at all, at all in this examination.
Such different, strategic game-plans add to the intrigue for this Major on a links where once-green grass has developed yellow and brown tints as fairways have firmed-up under glorious sunshine. The fairness of the links, though, means players won’t suffer anything like the wild and wicked bounces of other courses, of say Royal St Georges; and it is only their own waywardness which will likely trip them up.
McIlroy, the world number two, has prepared diligently this past fortnight in seeking to reignite a season that has yet to find any sustained sparkle. Yesterday, the Ulsterman showed some life of his own in reacting to the comments from Nick Faldo earlier in the week which suggested McIlroy needed to focus more on his golf.
Of that advice proffered by Faldo, McIlroy responded: "I saw what he said, (that) I should be at the course nine to five. I actually was on the range at 6:15 (on Tuesday), and got out of the gym at 6:15, actually a 12-hour day compared to his eight-hour day. It is what it is, and Nick should know how hard this game is at times. And he's been in our position before. And he should know how much work that we all do put into it."
Wind directions
In all, including the two-day reconnaissance visit he paid here last week, McIlroy has played 108 holes of golf in different wind directions. He is ready, as familiar with the links as anyone. Yet, ask him what shape his game is in, and you get a non-committal response.
“Promising,” replied McIlroy, as if even he doesn’t know when it will all click into place. Now? Tomorrow? Next week? Next month?
Muirfield is not the course to bring an out-of-sorts game to. The wind may not be a huge factor – with gusts predicted to reach no more than nine miles an hour on each of the four days – but the fast and firm fairways, lined with high fescue rough, will demand game plans that leave little room for error.
A large number of players have opted to leave the driver out of the bag, preferring to use (at most) a three-wood off the tees on the longer holes.
Not McIlroy. His intent is to use the driver “anywhere between five and seven” times in a round, depending on the wind. The new driver is slightly different to the one which has caused him such angst, most recently when missing the cut in the Irish Open. “More a pear shape,” is how he described the head, “but it encourages the club face to close over a little bit more. My bad drive this year has been losing it to the right, so this is encouraging the club face to square up on impact.”
McIlroy is adamant that patience is the key if he is to rediscover the form that made him dominant in the second half of last season, when he won the US PGA and kicked on to top both the European Tour and US Tour money lists.
As he explained: "You're going to go through highs and you're going to go through lows, it's about trying to work your way out of the lows. I haven't played my best golf this year, but I've showed signs that it is there. It's difficult to explain why I'm not playing well or haven't had the results I've wanted over the past six months. But I know that I'm working on the right things.
Turn around
"Sooner or later, it will turn around and I will play the golf that everyone knows I'm capable of playing and the golf that's capable of winning Major championships."
Winning Majors is what it is all about, and McIlroy heads a group of six Irish players all with ambitions and designs: Shane Lowry is “buzzing.” Graeme McDowell, with three wins on tour already under his belt, is – hopefully – recovered from a neck injury that has bothered him since his win in the French Open. Darren Clarke is hoping to rediscover his old magic; and Gareth Maybin, with two top-10s in back-to-back weeks, is aiming to continue that momentum.
As for Pádraig Harrington, the man who started the Irish Major streak, the desire is as strong as ever. Harrington’s three Major successes – in the 2007 and 2008 British Opens and the 2008 US PGA – have made him the most successful European player of his generation.
Harrington’s missed cut in last week’s Scottish Open was a blessing in disguise, in that it got him to Muirfield earlier where he has prepared with the diligence you’d expect from a man who knows better than most how to get the job done.
Interestingly Tiger Woods, intends to be very selective with the use of the driver this week on a course where new US Open champion Justin Rose observed, “the yardage book means very little this week . . . just trust in the bounce and trust in the roll, is what you have to get used to.”
Such imagination will be an important 15th club for any player with designs on the title. Rose will be seeking to emulate Woods (2000), Tom Watson (1982) and Lee Trevino (1971) who won both the US Open and British Open in the same year.
