Rory McIlroy - 4 Time Major Winner

Mushy · 05-03-2023 10:05pm

Awful tee shot on par 3

DJIMI TRARORE · 05-03-2023 10:06pm

After 3 bogeys in first 6 holes he's putting everything all of a sudden

prawnsambo · 06-03-2023 10:49am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120318561#Comment_120318561

He said afterwards that if he'd known he was leading he'd have played that tee shot differently. Made the perfect the enemy of the good was how he seemed to have described it. He only saw the leaderboard when he was on the green. Interesting insight into his mentality between when he's leading and when he's not.

blue note · 06-03-2023 11:01am

It's a crazy thing to say, but I don't think he's started all that well this year. Even though he has a win and a runner up finish. But I'd say he has a lot of capacity to improve. Please God he will over the next couple of weeks!

prawnsambo · 06-03-2023 11:12am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120319794#Comment_120319794

It's funny that he got more world ranking points from finishing T2 in the AP than he got from winning the Dubai Desert Classic.

blue note · 06-03-2023 11:55am

I suspect that's right though. He was the only one in the top 20 there that week. And were there even 20 lads from the top 100 playing in it? Whereas in Bay Hill had as good a field as you'll see this year.

Mushy · 06-03-2023 2:30pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120319794#Comment_120319794

I'm still trying to make sense of his 7 under 3rd round in Dubai where he could've had like 5 or 6 bogies but he scrambled excellently. Like how does 1 have an unconvincing round of 7 under? Definitely not at his A game, kinda scary

AyeGer · 09-03-2023 11:57pm

Ruairi struggling a bit today.

eagle eye · 10-03-2023 12:37am

You just don't know what you are going to get from Rory on any given day lately. Thing is he can recover from it which is ridiculous when you think about it.

Like last week he shot 74 in the first round and almost won.

AyeGer · 10-03-2023 12:38am

Makes him very interesting to watch. He could come out tomorrow in blistering form or have a mare and miss the cut.

prawnsambo · 10-03-2023 9:10am

There was one tee shot I saw (can't remember the hole) where the commentators were saying it was right up his street being a dog leg right to left. I was looking at how he set up for it and it looked like his feet were set up for a fade rather than a draw. And sure enough, it was so fadey it was almost a slice.

Just couldn't understand it.

Russman · 10-03-2023 10:20am

Interesting to hear Rory mention that he really wants to use last years driver but he's afraid that it might be over the CT limit after the thousands of shots he has hit with it. He said they were testing at Riviera and it would be a bad look for him and for Taylor Made if he was over the limit.

Wonder how constrained he is in his new contract with Taylor Made. When he was asked about the change to Vokey wedges a few weeks ago he mentioned that he now has a bit more freedom with his equipment so could use the Vokeys. I doubt TM would be very understanding if he dropped their flagship driver for say a Titleist or Ping driver though. I see Morikawa dropped the Stealth 2 for his original SIM, maybe the newest versions aren't up to much.

OEP · 10-03-2023 10:25am

Taylormade seem to put a lot of effort into marketing their drivers, and seem to have new ones more regularly than the other manufacturers, so I'd say the driver is the last thing he'd be allowed to drop.

coillcam · 10-03-2023 1:55pm

The thing is that you can't make any significant gain from equipment evolution each year. The rules and technical limits are so tight. I don't really want to pi$$ on any engineer or material scientist at all. However, drivers in particular are somewhat "solved" against the current rules. The increment in evolution is minuscule. Although there are definitely differences in shape, weight, balance, etc that mean you could get fitted more suitably to a better new driver. Or find a more suitable shaft/driver combo. Most OEMs put out the same 3x options or variation on this: low-spin for better players, more forgiving with more spring, CG lowered and to the back, and finally a draw bias one.

For each equipment cycle, the OEMs have a checklist of:

Does it max out all of the tolerances?
Can we make it cheaper or sell more?
Can we market it better (new material, buzzword name, appearance)?
Can we make enough models to cover all handicaps, ages and ladies too.

Will the new drivers be that much better than the recent releases? On overall average no.

Can you get fitted correctly and have significant gains from a new driver? Absolutely but it depends on your current baseline. If well fitted recently, then probably minimal gains if any.

The best example that undermines OEMs profit drive release cycle and AMAZING PERFORMANCE is the new Wilson DynaPower. Out of "nowhere", they've produced a driver that is testing equally as well as the big OEM new models. However, the Wilson one is about €150 or (20-25%) cheaper. Not a sexy brand, not a sexy looking club and some will turn their nose up at the name. The performance will speak for itself. Put a nice colour on it and change the to Taylormade, you'd never know the difference.

You could still get an og SIM or similar from the last 5 years matching new model performance. It's quite difficult to break the equipment rules and the laws of physics, well that's even a little more difficult.

Rory or any pro is like the rest of us. Sometimes you like the look, feel or familiarity of a club. It does exactly what you want. A new one may well just not sit or feel right for whatever reason. He's not at his best atm, the old driver may help a lot. Barely hitting any fairways will hurt everything else. Hopefully, he finds his swing to throw in a low one today and storms back up the leaderboard tomorrow.

eagle eye · 10-03-2023 4:04pm

I'm looking to forward to watching Rory today. I think he'll go low.

Xander10 · 10-03-2023 4:06pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120341118#Comment_120341118

Wind appears to be getting up. It's probably going to be a lot tougher for the late starters

eagle eye · 10-03-2023 4:22pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120341127#Comment_120341127

They are projecting the cut at +1 going home right now, I think it'll be higher than that, might be +3.

I still expect Rory to go low. It's what he normally does after a bad first round.

eagle eye · 10-03-2023 4:28pm

Wind isn't a big problem, it's the gusts that worry the players, so long as its not wild obviously.

The gusts right now are around 25 kmph, they will rise to 30 which isn't much of a difference. Max the actual wind will go up is 12 kmph which isn't much.

eagle eye · 10-03-2023 8:33pm

Well I think the first thing Rory needs to do is leave the driver in the bag. Unlucky there with his drive on the 5th but I think he'll do much better with the three wood. He hits that about 300 so it's not putting him in a very bad situation.

blackcard · 10-03-2023 8:44pm

Rory is struggling hugely with his driver this year. Even in the tournament that he won, it was because of playing great wedges and brilliant putting. One day, he hit one out of 14 fairways. Generally, he seems to be hitting about 30% of fairways. Yesterday he combined that with a dreadful day on the greens. His putting has generally been good this year but he must be alarmed with his driving. Can't see him making the cut but maybe a bit of time to work on his driving might be more beneficial