Say it ain’t so Rory.
Rory McIlroy carded four birdies and four bogeys in his final round of 70 at the USPGA Championship at Bellerive, St Louis. It was that kind of day. It was that kind of tournament.
While we all marvelled at Tiger Woods’ manic ability to produce recovery shots out of the top drawer, McIlroy was producing similar strokes but not frequently enough. There was a 50-foot putt dropping for birdie and another chip in from off the green but the Northern Irishman couldn’t get on a roll at all.
He eventually signed off for a closing total of 278 and -2, some 14 shots adrift of the impressive Brooks Koepka. Following his round, McIlroy told reporters:
“I mean, look, it’s been a year where there’s been glimpses of showing what I can do, but I just haven’t done it often enough, I guess.
“But, yeah, obviously, it’s the Major season over, and we’ve got to wait a few months for the next one, but there’s still a lot of golf to play this year and quite a bit to play for.”
The wait for Major No.5 goes on but, as McIlroy says, there is plenty more golf to be played in 2018. Whether that includes next month’s Ryder Cup, in France, has not yet been decided.
McIlroy is 7th on the European Points list but in qualification position, just behind Spain’s Jon Rahm, on the World Points list. Captain Thomas Bjorn will get four players from each list and round out his team with ‘Captain’s Picks’.
Qualifying for the European team should not be an issue but the Holywood native is not committing himself to a tilt at getting the trophy back from the USA. When a reporter noted that the Ryder Cup was “obviously” next, McIlroy replied:
“I hope I’m going to play in the Ryder Cup. I’m not sure. I need to assess where I’m at.
“I think the best thing for me to do right now is just sort of take a couple days off, reflect on what I need to do going forward. The best thing might be to take that first FedExCup week off and work on my game and come back, hopefully, in a better place for Boston.
“Historically, the first FedEx playoff event hasn’t been my best event of the four. I’ve played well in Boston. I’ve played pretty well in the other two.
“So, yeah, we’ll see. I’ll see how I feel. I’ll do some practice this week and see if I feel ready to go there and play, obviously, five out of six weeks or whatever it is leading up to the Ryder Cup. But, yeah, we’ll see.”
McIlroy has played in four previous Ryder Cup tournaments and has a 9-6-4 (Wins, Losses, Halves) record for 11 points out of a possible 19. He was an inspiration during wins at Celtic Manor and Gleneagles and has helped Europe to three Ryder Cup victories to date.
Bjorn, and Europe, will be rightly concerned with McIlroy’s comments but he obviously wants to get his own game in order before committing to an extremely taxing team competition.
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