Rory McIlroy’s Misses Not Getting Smaller, but Silver Lining is on the Horizon

Rory McIlroy’s Misses Not Getting Smaller, but Silver Lining is on the Horizon
McIlroy Shoots His Worse Opening-round Score on the PGA Tour at the Memorial











Chris Chaney May 30, 2013 9:43 PM

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Rory McIlroy watches a shot during the first round at the Memorial Tournament. (Getty Images)




COMMENTARY | Golf is not a game of perfect; golf is a game of misses and for Rory McIlroy in 2013, those misses have simply been too costly.

"My misses this year have been too wide," McIlroy said the Wednesday before the Memorial when asked wha
t's the reason he hasn't won yet this season. "Last year if I missed a fairway or missed a shot, it wasn't by much. This year it seems the misses have been big and have cost me… Sometimes in golf it's not about how good your good shots are, it's about how much damage your bad shots do to you."



Those misses continued to plague McIlroy as he opened Jack Nicklaus' tournament at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio with a 6-over par 78, his worst opening-round score on the PGA Tour.

"The game just isn't all there at the minute," McIlroy said following the round. "I'm pretty frustrated. I'm trying not to let it get to me. I don't have any explanations for it."

Here's an explanation for it: not only were McIlroy's misses with his woods and irons as equally off target, but they've crept onto the putting surface. McIlroy slapped it around the pristine and pure Muirfield greens 33 times on Thursday, including a four-putt on the 12th hole (his third of the day).

The usual suspects have come up in conversation about what's wrong with Rors: the new Nike clubs, the tennis-star girlfriend, the management company split. The excuses are as numerous and wild as the hairs on McIlroy's head.

Perhaps the biggest culprit of McIlroy's latest slump is that it's been too long since his last one, which came just about a year ago this month.

Ever the streaky player, McIlroy jettisoned off to a hot start in 2012 finishing in the top-3 (including a win at the Honda) in four of his first five tournaments of the season. Then things went a bit sideways. He missed the cut at the Players, then again at the Memorial. Two weeks later, he missed the cut at the US Open. And remember, at this point McIlroy was the top-ranked player in the world.

The same questions were brought up during that slump. Is he spending too much time with Caroline Wozniacki? Can he handle the pressures of being one of the most sought-after commodities in the sports world? Does he have the drive to be great or did success come too easily?

Then what did McIlroy do amid a cloud of doubt? Top-fived at the WGC-Bridgestone, won the PGA Championship by eight strokes, won two of the four FedEx Cup Playoff events and captured the money list titles on both the PGA and European Tours.

Gone were the doubts about his stability, his resiliency and his relationship status. We forgot about the drop off in May and June. Slump? What slump? This is the guy who's going to challenge Tiger Woods for the next 10 years, we said. We were certain of it.

Yet, here we are again, questioning what is going on with an admittedly streaky player.

"It feels like I'm waiting for that week where everything sort of clicks into place and I can get some momentum from that," McIlroy said later in that same Wednesday press conference. "A bit like last year where I got the top‑5 at Akron before the PGA and that gave me a little bit of momentum and I was able to kick on from there. I'm just waiting for one of those weeks."

It will be tough for this to be the week that everything clicks, especially given the hole he dug himself through one round.

However, with McIlroy, he is always one round away. One round away from knocking down every flagstick on the course with his irons and rolling in every putt he looks at.

So instead of trying to diagnose what's wrong with McIlroy, maybe we should just consider the player and his history. This isn't a new phenomenon; we have the scouting report on Rory: amazing highs with questionable lows, but all the talent in the world.

Right now, McIlroy is floundering in one of those lows, but his ascension back to the top of his game could come as soon as his next range session.

Chris Chaney is a Cincinnati, Ohio-based sportswriter. He has written for multiple outlets including WrongFairway.com, Hoopville.com, The Cincinnati (OH) Enquirer and The Clermont (OH) Sun.

Follow him on Twitter @Wrong_Fairway.

Is Guan Tianlang Actually Hurting Professional Golf?

Is Guan Tianlang Actually Hurting Professional Golf?











Adam Fonseca May 30, 2013 11:21 PM




COMMENTARY | In his first round of the Memorial Tournament on Thursday, 14-year-old Guan Tianlang fired an even-par 72 on one of the toughest courses on the PGA Tour schedule, Muirfield Village.

For those keeping score at home, Guan's score was better than that
of 10 former major winners also playing that day. Tiger Woods shot a 71; a mere shot better than a player 23 years his junior.



This kid has serious game and he isn't afraid to compete against the best players in the world on the grandest of stages. But is Guan Tianlang inadvertently shining a spotlight on what is wrong with professional golf in the process?

When Guan exploded onto the golf scene in November 2012 by winning the Asia-Pacific Amateur - thus qualifying for The Masters five months later -- his success was met with as much criticism as accolades. Not only was a player who can't legally drive himself to the course beating golfers twice his age, he also managed to take away one of the most coveted invitations in all of sports from those same players.

PGA Tour players Charlie Beljan and Matt Every complained about Guan's inclusion at Augusta National, stating they were more deserving of an invitation to the year's first major. Most golf fans brushed away their comments as sour grapes… but did the PGA veterans have a point?

Watching Guan play in a professional golf tournament goes exactly how one would suspect. He will usually hit driver off the tee when not playing a par-3, swinging as hard as his adolescent frame will allow. Guan's approach shot usually requires a hybrid or fairway wood, which he again attacks with free-swinging abandon. A chip and a putt or two later, Guan escapes with par or bogey and moves on to the next hole.

How is a 14-year-old able to accomplish this with the relative ease of any tour journeyman? By the miracles of modern golf technology! That's how.

Professional golf is a sport once defined by unparalleled precision and pinpoint-accurate ballstriking. In the days of persimmon drivers, balata golf balls and butter knife-esque blades, players were literally surgeons on the course. Distance came at a premium for only the strongest players while shorter players were forced to excel in the art of shot shaping.

As golf clubs and equipment have evolved over the years, so has the margin of error for today's players. Driver clubheads more closely resemble car hubcaps in both size and material. Cavity back and forged irons blast shots further than any fairway wood dreamed to achieve decades ago. Wedges are milled with grooves that literally grab onto today's multi-layered golf balls, generating spin rates and ball flights that would make Isaac Newton blush.

In other words, today's equipment allows professionals to swing as hard as they want with minimal uncertainty of where their ball will end up.

Of course, this is not to suggest that today's professional golfer is by any means less talented or dedicated to his craft as those of yesteryear. Furthermore, what Guan Tianlang is accomplishing in 2013 is both inspiring and historic. He has made two consecutive PGA Tour cuts and is well on his way to a third. I will be the first to admit I am excited and anxious to see what this young man will accomplish next.

But let's not fool ourselves by overlooking the obvious: today's golf equipment has made the game substantially easier for the world's best players, and Guan Tianlang is doing his best to capitalize on a golden opportunity.



Adam Fonseca has been covering professional golf since 2005. His work can be found on numerous digital outlets including the Back9Network and SB Nation. He currently lives in Chicago with his wife. Follow Adam on Twitter @chicagoduffer.

Tiger Woods Should Suck it Up and Put Steve Stricker on His Payroll

Tiger Woods Should Suck it Up and Put Steve Stricker on His Payroll
The World No. 1’s Putting Leaves Something to Be Desired











Chris Chaney May 31, 2013 4:56 PM

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Tiger Woods and Steve Stricker. (Getty Images)




COMMENTARY | Tiger Woods has always been a great putter.

The flat stick has been the one facet of his game that has consistently been the saving grace for the majority of his career (save for the dark ages, between late 2009-2010 when everything was off). Different swings, big misses and even altering brands of putters have come and gone, but his buttery stroke has remained in tact.

With his new Sean Foley swing now ingrained into his muscle memory, Woods has been able to really go to work on his
short game. Never one to seek out professional help with his putting in his formative years because his father had a keen eye for the stroke, Woods has enlisted only friendly advice since Earl Woods' passing in 2006.



That friendly advice has come more often than not from close buddy and Ryder/Presidents Cup partner Steve Stricker.

Stricker gave Woods his most famous lesson ahead of the World Golf Championships Cadillac Championship earlier this year en route to Woods' best putting week of his career. That would be his entire career, not just his post-hydrant career.

It would seem that Woods has begun to misremember or improperly incorporate the tips "Stricks" -- as Woods calls him -- gave him nearly three months ago.

Take the first two rounds of this week's Memorial Tournament for example. Over two rounds at a course he owns, Woods is 1-over par and has jacked it around the greens 60 times already. And he's hitting the ball well -- 24/28 fairways; 23/36 greens in regulation.

So the question has to be raised: why doesn't Woods put Stricker on his payroll? Woods' notoriously tight-knit inner circle wouldn't be compromised with an already indoctrinated member joining the ranks and realistically, it wouldn't have to be too much of a time drain on either party. A la Jack Nicklaus and his swing coach Jack Grout, Woods and Stricker would need to only meet a few times a year to brush things up, refine the fundamentals that have gotten a little loose and watch the results and money roll in.

Woods had already won once on Tour in 2013 prior to Stricker giving him some refreshers on his posture, but since the lesson, Woods has won three of the four other tournaments he has teed it up in (the only non-win was a T4 at Augusta).

That is to say, Woods is going to win tournaments simply because he's Tiger Woods. But with a practiced eye focused the most impactful part of the game, Woods could reach heights that perhaps even he hasn't seen before.

Woods ball-striking is the best it's been in years; his wedge game is on point, hitting the ball to an average of 16-feet-3 inches from the hole from inside 150 yards and his driving accuracy is giving him more opportunities than ever. As the poster boy for recovering from trouble, the only thing keeping Woods from blowing out fields is a putter that isn't always clicking; he's still winning, but not by the margins you or I know he is capable of.

Perhaps it's a matter of principle keeping Woods from reaching out to Stricker. Although semi-retired, Stricker is still ranked 12th in the world and arguably playing some of the best golf of his career despite his reigned in schedule.

More than likely, however, Woods' decision not to throw Stricker on his payroll has to do with pride and the memory of his father. Woods has never been one to ask for help, nor believe that anyone knows his game better than himself. Yet, the outside perspective from a friend like Stricker is something that could transform the 2013 Tiger Woods into an even better version of himself.

All he needs is a little help from his friend.

Chris Chaney is a Cincinnati, Ohio-based sportswriter. He has written for multiple outlets including WrongFairway.com, Hoopville.com, The Cincinnati (OH) Enquirer and The Clermont (OH) Sun.

Follow him on Twitter @Wrong_Fairway.