Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee has questioned Rory McIlroy’s mentality when it comes to golf’s ‘Big Four’ events, asking if the world number two, who hasn’t won a Major Championship since 2014, becomes too embroiled in the enormity of the task at hand and doesn’t allow his natural talents to shine through.
“It’s the most often asked question about any golfer,” he said of McIlroy on the Golf Channel’s run-in to the 152nd Open at Royal Troon. “Why does Rory’s game deteriorate in the biggest moments?”
McIlroy’s narrow loss to Bryson DeChambeau at the U.S. Open at Pinehurst last month is the closest he’s come to ending the Major drought, but should he fail to land the Claret Jug this week, it will be 10 full years and 38 majors without success.
And Chamblee argues that Rory gets caught up in the moment.
“When you look at what the best athletes do when they play to a higher level, they are being themselves,” he said.
“They are extraordinary athletes; they don’t have their minds cluttered up and, of course, their focus narrows the closer they get to the lead because of the confidence they get from that.
“So, it seems to me that Rory over time has enquired a lot from swing instructors or putting instructors or sports psychologists or deep dives from YouTube.
“With this generation, there is an epidemic of people doing deep dives on YouTube and getting cluttered up with curiosity.
“When I see Rory, it looks to me like he has either too many swing thoughts in his mind or he has too many voices in his head, it’s the only logical conclusion that I can draw.
“Why can one person be so obviously different getting into the lead or close to the lead and so obviously different when he has the lead.”
Any fears that McIlroy’s self-imposed absence following that heartbreaking loss at Pinehurst would have had a significant effect on his form were dispelled with a T4 finish on his competitive return at the Genesis Scottish Open last week, but it’s this week that counts.
He gets his opening round underway alongside Tyrrell Hatton and Max Homa at 10:09 on Thursday, bidding to claim a second Claret Jug after victory at Royal Liverpool in 2014.