Rory McIlroy further cemented himself as the one to watch at the Masters next month after winning the Players Championship for the second time in his career on Monday.
It was Rory McIlroy who triumphed at TPC Sawgrass. The 35-year-old edged out J.J. Spaun in a playoff to secure his second PGA Tour title of the year following his victory at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am earlier in the season.
There appears to be something different about McIlroy this year. When you watch him, it does not feel like he is playing quite as well as he ever has done. Certainly, this does not feel quite like the Northern Irishman in full flight.
However, he appears to have found a way to win when not quite at his very best. Previously, it would have been no surprise to see McIlroy follow his bogey on 14 on Sunday at Sawgrass with further mistakes. As it was, he limited the damage to not capitalising on good birdie opportunities on the next two holes.
One part of Rory McIlroy’s game criticised after the Players Championship
But perhaps the optimism should be tinged with caution ahead of the Masters – because McIlroy is not quite putting everything together right now.
Speaking on The Hank Haney Podcast, Hank Haney noted that he was hugely impressed by McIlroy’s performance – but there was one aspect of his game which was still poor.
“Rory’s a great champion. And I’ll tell you what, Rory McIlroy is a better player today than he has ever been. He’s always been a tremendous player. He is a great champion, there’s no denying that. He’s a better putter now for sure – although his speed was horrible in that playoff, and then that speed on 16 in the tournament when he ran it by and then he did the same thing again in the playoff hole, and then his speed on 18, just not good. Speed on 17, running it by. His speed on the greens was not good,” he said.
“But he’s a better putter, he’s making those short putts. And his ball-striking has gone from great to another level of great, when he can play those little shots, those three-quarter shots. When I had mentioned my criticism of what happened at the US Open, I said that’s the shot, that flighted iron shot that he played into the 17th hole at TPC in the playoff, flighted it down, beautiful shot, played the same shot on 18 – that’s the shot he needed to play at the US Open at Pinehurst on the 15th hole, the par three when he sent it straight up in the air. But he shows he has that shot, and when you have that shot, when you can control the trajectory of your ball, you can control the distance you hit, and it makes it so that every single hole is an attackable hole position, and he can also play in any kind of conditions, any kind of tournament, any kind of course.”
Why McIlroy has reason to be very pleased with his putting performance at the Players
It was extremely impressive how McIlroy holed a number of tricky putts after racing the first effort by, particularly in the latter stages of the tournament.
He did not make it easy on himself at times, particularly on his 72nd hole when it had become clear that he may face a nervous wait just to make it into a playoff.
However, McIlroy will argue that his putting was a lot better than he is getting credit for. For the first time since 2022, McIlroy has ranked inside the top 10 for strokes gained putting for two tournaments in a row.
That should give him enormous confidence heading into the Masters. While the greens themselves do not need to be most difficult for elite players who play them each year, they will gladly trip up anyone who does not bring their best.
McIlroy will probably not be quite as successful if he leaves himself as many testers at Augusta National. But everything else in his game appears to be on such a level right now that he can probably afford to now spend a little longer preparing for the putting surfaces.
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