Rory McIlroy might be on the cusp of equalling Seve Ballesteros’ six Harry Vardon Trophys as the leading player on the European Tour’s Order of Merit rankings, now called the Race to Dubai under DP World’s sponsorship, but despite only having Colin Montgomerie’s eight to chase should things go to plan over the next fortnight, the world number three is not happy with where his swing has been in recent months.
Speaking to the press ahead of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship at Yas Links, McIlroy confessed that he’d shut himself in the swing studio at The Bear’s Club in Florida to iron out some kinks.
“Yeah, I probably haven’t liked the shape of my golf swing for a while, especially the backswing,” he said. “The only way I was going to make a change or at least move in the right direction with my swing was to lock myself in a studio and not see the ball flight for a bit and just focus entirely on the movement.
“So did that for three weeks after the Dunhill. Started to get outside and hit some shots last week and see how it is. I’m terrible at if I’m trying to make a certain swing or a certain swing change, and I start to mis-strike it or not hit the shots that I want, I’ll just revert back to what I was doing because it’s comfortable.
“I think doing this in the studio it was a big key for me to just try to make a start on getting the swing back to where I want it to be. But it’s an ongoing process, as you know, to get out here and play. When there’s sequences to the shots that you hit, you’re always going to revert back to what’s comfortable. Hopefully the more that I do over these next few months, it will bed in and get back to the shape I want to be in.”
McIlroy asserts that it’s not as unusual as you’d think for a professional to ignore ball flight when making initial changes to technique, but concedes that it’s still very much a work in progress as what he’s feeling on the course is not yet on par with what he’s feeling in the studio.
With three wins across both the DP World and PGA Tours, plus a further four runner-up finishes including that heartbreaking loss in the U.S. Open at Pinehurst, it’s not that his swing wasn’t working, but he feels that the technical improvements will make it more consistent and better equipped to stand up under pressure.
“I think it’s not necessarily that I couldn’t make the way I was swinging work,” he explained. “It was just that it relied a little bit more on timing and match-ups of my transition and a bunch of different technical things. I just wanted to clean it up a little bit. Clean up the motion to make it a little more efficient.
“And when I’m in the studio and make my rehearsals of what I want to do, I like the way it looks. It looks a little bit more the way I want to swing and the positions that I want to hit.
“And then I would say in terms of when I started to hit balls again outside and look at my ball flight, I think it just brought my start lines in a little bit, which is a good thing. Sometimes when my swing goes off, I can hit draws and fades, but I’m having to aim further right and left for those draws and fades to make sure that I do it.
“So instead of being able to hit a three-yard draw it’s more like an eight- or ten-yard draw; and I’m the same way the other way with the fade. It’s just into these extremes a little bit, instead of, you know, if you can tighten up your start lines, it means that your aiming points are much tighter and then your dispersion isn’t quite as wide.
“So make just a little bit of a difference with start lines. But look, it’s a work-in-progress. For me, it’s something just to make my golf swing more efficient, and then if it is more efficient, then it means it’s not going to break down as much under pressure. If I look at my year, the one thing that I would criticise myself on is the fact that I’ve had these chances to win.
“But then when I’ve had these chances to win, okay, some may have been because of the putter but others have been because of my ball-striking letting me down as a crucial point. I think just trying to clean all that up so that whenever I do get under that pressure, you know, I can have a hundred per cent trust in my swing and know what’s going to happen.”
That means that this week’s penultimate event in Abu Dhabi and the season-sending DP World Tour Championship in Dubai next week are effectively testing grounds for his technique. But he still has work to do to secure his sixth Harry Vardon Trophy so it’s not exactly a free roll of the dice.
“If I go out and win this week, obviously you know, it makes it a bit boring next week. But I won’t find it boring; it will be lovely,” he smiled.
“But yeah, all I can focus on is the task at hand and trying to play as well as I can this week, and if I can do that, I’ll give myself an even better chance. Yeah, try to stay focused this week and play as well as I can, and you know, give myself another chance to win. I’ve had a lot of good chances this year. I’ve converted a couple.
“But I’ve let a few slip away. Try to give myself another two chances to win golf tournaments that are important to me.”