Rickie Fowler has just unintentionally made it very clear why Rory McIlroy has really struggled over the past two months.
McIlroy has endured a really difficult two months on the golf course, after winning The Masters back in April.
Now Fowler has succinctly explained exactly why that might be the case.
Fowler was incredibly happy to see McIlroy win the Masters at Augusta National in April.
Things have gone rapidly downhill for the Northern Irishman since then, though.
Rickie Fowler has inadvertently explained Rory McIlroy’s problem
Since McIlroy’s Masters win, he has been embroiled in controversy after snubbing the media after six consecutive championship rounds.
McIlroy felt hard done by after his driver was deemed to be non-conforming just before the PGA Championship, and his name was subsequently leaked to the press.
However, his problems have mostly been on the golf course. McIlroy has admitted to having issues with motivation, after what he explained as climbing his own Mount Everest.
And Fowler supported that notion, when speaking to the Golf Channel about his own game ahead of the Rocket Classic.
He said: “You work so hard to get back to a position. It’s almost like you get that win and obviously it was a huge relief. It was tough to kind of get back on and continue the grind. I’m not saying it was me packing it in or anything like that, that was not the case. Yeh, sometimes it’s tough when you work so hard to get something specific and then that’s accomplished. It’s tough to explain the mental side of it. Obviously going back it’s really cool to think what I was going through in 2021 and 2022, and ultimately where I ended up in 2023 and what that win meant. It would have been a lot better if I continued to play like that, but that’s what we’re working on right now.”
McIlroy and Fowler clearly need to set new goals
If you achieve your lifetime ambition, like McIlroy did at Augusta National two months ago, then you simply have to set out some new targets, otherwise life in general will be pretty unfulfilling.
There is no use going through the motions.
McIlroy should be saying to himself now, ‘why not complete the Grand Slam for the second time’?
Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus both did it three times, and whilst McIlroy may not have the drive that those two players did, he has to find something that will give him purpose in the game again.
The same can be said for Fowler, to a lesser extent of course.
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