Gary Williams has explained why he has seen enough from Rory McIlroy in his first two starts of the PGA Tour season to believe that he is going to be a serious threat to contend at both The Masters and the US Open.
Rory McIlroy can take a lot of positives from his performances at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the Genesis Invitational. The Northern Irishman finished one shot behind Jacob Bridgeman at Riviera on Sunday.
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Of course, thoughts are starting to turn to the upcoming major championship season.
With Scottie Scheffler not quite at his best, McIlroy certainly looks to have a real opportunity. He will return to Augusta National with the burden of finally winning lifted from his shoulders.
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It seems that there have been signs that hint that he has the tools to contend at The Masters once again.
Reflecting on his first two PGA Tour starts of the season, Gary Williams told 5 Clubs what really caught his eye about McIlroy’s performances at Pebble Beach and Riviera.
“One last point about Rory and the two starts, he had a 64 in the final round, bogey free, at Pebble Beach. The golf course was a little bit softer, but I thought in total, because we saw a lot of his shots, and yes, the golf course was soft, it doesn’t change the approach,” he said.
“The flighting of his shots, the array of shots that he was executing, I know he went to his other irons, and I don’t expect him to be going back to those cavity-back irons, in addition to the iron play, the apexes of a lot of his drivers, including the way that he was playing the 18th hole, these low bullet bleeders, that were hitting soft fairways and still running 30, 35 yards and basically starting them on the spine of the fairway and letting it just bleed out to the right side of the fairway – he can shape it right or left into that 18th green at Riviera – it made me think about a couple of things. The artistry of what is required at Augusta National because of all the uneven lies you have there. And then beyond that, Shinnecock, firm and fast.
“What he’s done in his evolution of everyone tagging him as what I think he primarily was five, six, seven, eight years ago, which was he’s an aerial player. And he can still take it upstairs better than anybody. But windows open, shaping of shots, and low apex drivers, that’s artistry. That is something that travels everywhere, including places that get very crispy and very, very bouncy.”
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McIlroy’s win at the 2025 Masters felt destined to happen. Obviously, the weight of the pressure was evident as he threatened to throw away his triumph several times on Sunday.
But the framework of the plan was in place for some time. The pivotal moment was arguably when McIlroy hit a flawless tee shot into 17 on that Monday morning when he faced J.J. Spaun in a playoff at The Players Championship.
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So it is intriguing that he seems to have stepped up his iron game in the early stages of 2026. McIlroy is currently first on the PGA Tour for strokes gained approach – a category usually dominated by Scheffler.
He was agonisingly close to piling the pressure on Bridgeman in the early stages of Sunday’s final round in the Pacific Palisades. Several putts missed by the barest of margins.
Once again, it really feels as though McIlroy is building for the majors as if he is golf’s ultimate prizefighter.
So perhaps a sixth major title this year is far from out of the question.
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