ARDMORE, Pa. — It was nine months ago when the hot South Carolina sunshine bore down on Rory McIlroy, and he reigned atop the world of golf. Lifting the Wannamaker Trophy, McIlroy had just won the PGA Championship at Kiawah Island, and taken two of the previous seven majors.
Yet the fall from No. 1 in the world to No. 2 can be a long drop, and McIlroy comes into this week’s U.S. Open at Merion Golf Club having not won a tournament of any clout since that day last August.
“Coming off the back of a great year last year, and I guess expecting myself to emulate that or even try and do better, and it hasn’t really happened so far,” McIlroy said Tuesday, just two days before he goes off at 1:14 p.m. in his powerhouse first- and second-round pairing with Tiger Woods and Adam Scott. “I feel like it’s close. I’ve been seeing a lot of positive signs in my game the last few weeks.”
The two most recent tournaments McIlroy has played don’t exactly back up that claim. Three weeks ago at the European Tour’s BMW Championship at Wentworth in England, McIlroy shot a disastrous five-over total of 149 and missed the cut. The next week at the Memorial in Ohio, he shot a four-day total of six-over, and finished in a disappointing 57th place.
“That has been the most difficult,” McIlroy said. “You always want to go out and play well and you want to contend and win tournaments. I haven’t done enough of that this year.”
The 24-year-old Northern Irishman — and now full-on Floridian living in Palm Beach Gardens — took last week off, yet came to Merion’s famed East Course on Tuesday and Wednesday for practice rounds. Then, the conditions were a lot firmer and faster than they are now, following five inches of rain that have fallen since Friday.
Yet the sogginess might be to McIlroy’s advantage, as Congressional was wet and slow at the U.S. Open two years ago when he ran away with his first major, shooting a score of 16-under par that made many at the USGA flush with anger.
“I much prefer this sort of golf,” McIlroy said. “When you hit a shot and it doesn’t bounce one way or the other, when you it and it stays where you think it’s going to stay. There’s still not going to be that many birdies out there.”
In March of last year, it was Woods who leapfrogged McIlroy for that coveted No. 1 ranking. At the beginning of this season, McIlroy also switched from Titlest clubs to Nike (for a reported $200 million) prompting some acquaintance time that included walking off after 27 holes of the Honda Classic, where he was defending champ.
“It’s nice to come in and, not come in under the radar, but be able to do your own thing,” McIlroy said. “To get on with your business and prepare the way you want to for this tournament.”