Paul McGinley believes adding distance is not the answer to Rory McIlroy's problems: "It's incredible that Rory would go down this road. It seems like an over-reaction to what Bryson [DeChambeau] did when he won the US Open"
Saturday 13 March 2021 16:19, UK
Paul McGinley has urged Rory McIlroy to follow Dustin Johnson's approach to golf, rather than be influenced by the speed and power strategy that Bryson DeChambeau used to win the US Open.
McIlroy missed the cut at The Players Championship by 10 shots after hugely disappointing rounds of 79 and 75 - and he revealed afterwards that he was struggling with problems in his swing - flaws which initially developed following "speed training" sessions last autumn.
His quest to add extra distance to his long game was inspired by the manner of DeChambeau's six-shot victory at Winged Foot, where he traded accuracy off the tee for raw power and justified his tactics with a dominant performance that landed his first major title.
Asked why he was chasing extra speed and distance when already one of the longest hitters in the world, McIlroy said: "I'd be lying if I said it wasn't anything to do with what Bryson did at the US Open. I think a lot of people saw that and were like, 'whoa'. If this is the way they're going to set golf courses up in the future, it helps. It really helps.
"The one thing people don't appreciate is how good Bryson is out of the rough. Not only because of how upright he is but because his short irons are longer than standard, so he can get a little more speed through the rough than us, than other guys.
"And I thought being able to get some more speed is a good thing, and maybe just to the detriment a little bit of my swing. I got there, but I just need to maybe rein it back in a little bit."
But McGinley feels McIlroy should go "back to basics" and insisted McIlroy's main weakness is his approach play from 150 yards in, something that Johnson - the current world No 1 - works hardest to maintain and improve during practice sessions with coach Claude Harmon.
"I couldn't believe it when I heard Rory say that, but I'm not surprised," McGinley said on Sky Sports The Players. "Professional golfers are like sheep, we are going to follow somebody who is having some success. What's incredible is that one of the best drivers of the ball that we've ever seen in the game thinks that he might need to find another 10 or 15 yards.
"That was not necessary. We all know where Rory's weaknesses are, his approach play particularly, over the last 12-14 months, has really fallen off the planet, especially with his short-irons. If you look at his statistics from 50 to 150 yards in, he's ranked around 200th on the PGA Tour, which is not far from last.
"And with the addition nowadays of all the monitoring devices, it's about hard work, application and dialling in the numbers. Look at Dustin Johnson; he's had a phenomenal run over the last six or seven months, and he spends three-quarters of every practice session working on shots from 50 yards to 150 yards.
"He hits very few drivers and very few long-irons, his work with coach Claude Harmon is mostly about dialling in the scoring clubs, and it's the same with his putting.
"So it's incredible that Rory would go down this road. It seems like an over-reaction to what Bryson did when he won the US Open. Of course, the big hitting was important, but he also led the putting statistics. He putted unbelievably well and his scrambling was fabulous."
McIlroy now has less than a month to work on fixing the problems with his swing ahead of the Masters, although McGinley thinks having lower expectations going into the first major of the year could be beneficial to McIlroy's chances of completing the career Grand Slam.
"There's not a lot of expectation on him now, especially with how he's played this week at Sawgrass, so that's not a bad thing for him leading into the Masters," McGinley added. "But I hoping he doesn't over-react.
"He's hinted to the media recently that there might be some big changes coming, and I just hope that's not going to be the case. He's had Michael Bannon as his coach since a very young age, nobody knows Rory's swing better than Michael.
"When McIlroy's swing goes off, the problem is normally down to fundamentals, it's never something massively wrong. I'd hate to see him having to learn a new swing under a new coach.
"We all know how good a player he is, and having a bit of a rest now will be a good thing. He's played a lot of golf recently, seven tournaments in eight weeks, much more than he would normally play. But let's remember he came into The Players on the back of two top-10s, so it's not like his form has been horrendous.
"He's been top 16 in six of his last seven starts, so he's really not a million miles away. He just needs to get his confidence in the right place, he needs to be fresh, and he needs to go away and assess a few things and get back to what made him the most dominant player in the world a mere 14 or 15 months ago.
"I'm hoping this is the wake-up call he needed, but the answer for him is not in something new, a new theory or a new way of playing the game. The answer goes back to what he did when he was world No 1, and that's becoming better with the scoring clubs.
"From 150 yards in, down to his putting, he's got to be much better in that area than he is at the moment. So I'm hoping he goes back to those basic fundamentals, there's no new 'secret sauce' that's going to help him win the Masters and take him back to the top of the world rankings."
