In recent weeks, we have seen the old Rory McIlroy in fits and starts. After his wretched opening six holes at The Open Championship, the Ulsterman has shown encouraging flickers that something is coming. Unfortunately, for every rip-roaring drive there has been an erratic wedge to follow, or a misread putt to spurn a birdie opportunity. It’s been, infuriatingly, one step forward, one step back.
At Firestone last week, McIlroy stayed in the mix pretty much until the end, a stuttering final round preventing him from finishing higher than tied for fifth. Of course, nobody was going to catch runaway champion Hideki Matsuyama, whose 61 was among the finest rounds you’re ever likely to see on that course.
Nevertheless, with a split from long-time caddie JP Fitzgerald intensifying the spotlight on the 28-year-old, McIlroy responded well and suggested – more so through a series of flushed drives than anything else – that he is threatening to operate at optimum efficiency before long.
McIlroy’s 2017 has been well-covered, but let’s refresh for a moment. Equipment change, ball change, getting married and parting company with Fitzgerald have all added up to a year of ‘transition.’ The four-time Major champion has had to contend with some seismic changes off the course, and his consistency and killer instinct has faltered on it as a result.
In his press conference ahead of the PGA Championship this week, though, McIlroy spoke of feeling ‘settled,’ while insisting that his self-belief remains entirely undimmed amid suggestions that it will be Jordan Spieth, not he, who will become the sport’s first truly dominant figure since Tiger Woods.
“I'm not putting that much pressure on myself. I've proven myself enough over the last nine years of my career," said the Northern Irishman, who hopes to end a three-year wait for his fifth Major this week.
"I never lost faith. I've always believed in my abilities. I still do."
"Obviously I wouldn't have won as much as I would have liked this year, and there's been a few components to that, injury-wise, changing equipment and stuff. It has been a bit of a transitional year.
"But I feel like everything has settled. I just want to go out and play my game and hopefully that will be good enough."
If his history at Quail Hollow, the stage for this week’s PGA, is anything to go by, it probably will be good enough. The North Carolina course has produced the best in McIlroy down the years, notably a course record 62 in 2010 when he romped to the Quail Hollow Championship in May 2010, his maiden PGA Tour title before breaking his own record with a 61 on route to winning the same tournament by seven strokes in 2015.
“I just feel good around here. I don't know what it is. I've got some great memories,” he said Tuesday.
For the rest of the field, that’s ominous. If McIlroy got to pick and choose a golf course to kickstart his return to winning ways, Quail Hollow would comfortably make the top-three, and that bodes well for him as he tries to end a trying year on a triumphant note.
Victory at the PGA would obviously do the trick, and with defences of the Deutsche Bank and Tour Championships to come in the next month or so, there will be ample opportunities for the McIlroy to swing the pendulum of power back in his favour.
Recently – and quite rightly – it’s all been about Spieth, and the precocious Texan can become the youngest player ever to capture a career Grand Slam with a victory here this week, but even recently-crowned Open Champion has been showering praise on McIlroy in the media.
“Rory is a guy who is very difficult if you come into a one-on-one type situation no matter where it is, but especially in majors, because he's not afraid to hit the shot,” the 24-year-old said.
“He plays so aggressively, and that's what you have to do to win. I mean, you're going to lose some tournaments because of it, but you're going to win a lot more. He's proven that. Rory’s won this tournament by eight shots [in 2012].”
If Spieth, who has just about as good a golf brain as any on tour at the moment, believes McIlroy is the man to beat this week, we’d be wise to heed his prognostication that his rival’s return to the winners’ enclosure is imminent.
