Rory McIlroy is on the brink
Rory McIlroy played his first tournament of 2022 on the DP World Tour at the Dubai Desert Classic. Rory was out to lay down a marker for the season and had revenge on his mind in Dubai after what happened at the 2021 DP World Tour Championship were Collin Morikawa took the final European Tour event away from Rory. McIlroy was playing well at the Dubai Desert Classic and had the tournament in his own hands with two holes to go on the final day. The 17th at Majlis is a short par 4 but McIlroy put his drive way right and ended up scrambling a par which meant that he needed to birdie the 18th par 5 to win. Rory took a 3 wood for his tee shot on the 18th and found the fairway but he left himself a long shot for his second shot with not using a driver off the tee. Rory had a decision to make in whether to go for the green with his second shot or lay up. With water in front it will take a spectacular shot to reach the green. Rory decided to go for the green and found the water which meant that they only way that he could make birdie was by holing his fourth shot. Rory missed out on a play-off due to this and at the time this caused a lot of debate on social media regarding his decision process. I admire him for taking the shot on because if he pulled it off everybody would have been amazed by it and I thought it was the right decision to make an attempt in trying to reach the green. McIlroy still finished third in the end but McIlroy is only focused on winning and not playing just to finish in the top five.
McIlroy took a couple of weeks off after this to calm his frustrations of not winning and decided to tee it up at 2022 Genesis Open hosted by Tiger Woods. Rory got off to a slow start in this tournament and found it hard to make a run up the leaderboard over the first three days but shot a final round of three under par to finish in the top ten. Rory always finds a way to get a back door top ten which is amazing.
After the Genesis Open the PGA Tour moved to Florida for three events The Honda Classic, The Players and Valspar Championship. The only tournament that McIlroy played in on the Florida swing was The Players. Rory has happy memories of Sawgrass as he had a fantastic finish to his final round in 2019 to win the flagship event on the PGA Tour. McIlroy struggled over the first two days with various weather delays but managed to make the cut. McIlroy kept his best round until the final round at Sawgrass as Rory shot a round of 66 finishing the tournament on three under par to finish in the top 35. Even though McIlroy didn’t win the final round would give him confidence and believe going into the future tournaments.
Rory took the decision to not play at the 2022 WGC Dell Tech Matchplay in Austin, Texas and decided to play the week before the Masters instead. Rory teed up at 2022 Valero Texas Open looking for form before The Masters but wasn’t able to find any form as he missed the cut after round two. Again this created debate on social media with people saying that he shouldn’t have played the week before a major and also saying it was a waste of his time as he missed the cut. I have no problem with players playing a week before a major and he didn’t mean to miss the cut on purpose as golf is a game that is unpredictable. Nobody would of said anything if he won the event as people are never happy but it wasn’t a bad thing that he missed the cut as he managed to get some rust out of his system before the first major of the season.
As it grew closer to the first major nobody wasn’t really talking about Rory’s grand slam attempt as all the focus was on Tiger Woods return in the lead up to the first round. The first two days at Augusta National were difficult due to a swirling breeze but McIlroy battled well to make the cut on two over par. The conditions on day three were a bit easier regarding the wind but the wind was replaced with cold temperatures and McIlroy shot a round of 71 to put himself on one over par after round three. McIlroy was ten shots behind going into the final day at Augusta and there was no pressure on McIlroy. McIlroy freed up and went back to playing like a eighteen year old with no pressure and letting his swing do the talking. Rory started his final round with a birdie on the first hole and managed three more birdies on his front nine to shoot 32 strokes on the front nine. His back nine started with unlikely birdie from the back of the green on the tricky par 4 10th then followed this up with an eagle on the par 5 13th with McIlroy getting to six under for the tournament after playing thirteen holes of his final round. The birdies dried up going down the stretch but managed an unbelievable birdie on the 18th by holing his third shot from the greenside bunker. McIlroy shot a final round of 64 which meant that he would finish in second place. This was a round were he didn’t overthink it and that has to happen more often this year especially in the three remaining majors in the Summer. This round was remarkable considering he just about made the cut on the number.
Since the Masters Rory has only played in one tournament which was the 2022 Wells Fargo Championship. Rory has won this tournament three times which included winning the tournament in 2021. This event normally takes place a Quail Hallow but was moved to TPC Potomac at Avenel as Quail Hallow is getting ready to host 2022 Presidents Cup in September. Rory started off with a solid round of three under par but shot three over on day two and needed to make a putt from seven feet to make the cut on the number. Rory improved on day three by shooting a two under round and with players making bogies McIlroy was in the top ten after round three. On the final day MCIlroy made a couple of birdies and was only two shots off the lead after playing ten holes but the wind went out of his sails as he made a careless bogey on the 11th hole. McIlroy yet again found a way to finish in the top five with a final round of two under.
His finishes have been remarkable considering he has been so far behind after two rounds but if he can improve on his first two rounds I believe that he has a great chance of winning the 2022 PGA Championship at Southern Hills next week.