Rory’s “birdie blitz” and Masters hopes

[Billysboots]

Much is being made this morning of the fact that Rory McIlroy recorded his PGA Tour personal best of 29 birdies during the last four days, and that this illustrates he is in “good shape” for The Masters.

Pardon me for raining on the press pack’s parade, but he still finished seven shots back, behind a host of more consistent players. He could record 36 birdies at an event, but combine that with 36 dropped shots and he’ll win zip.

Does anyone actually believe McIlroy still has it in him to string together four good rounds at a Major? I don’t.

 

[Bunkermagnet]

Much is being made this morning of the fact that Rory McIlroy recorded his PGA Tour personal best of 29 birdies during the last four days, and that this illustrates he is in “good shape” for The Masters.

Pardon me for raining on the press pack’s parade, but he still finished seven shots back, behind a host of more consistent players. He could record 36 birdies at an event, but combine that with 36 dropped shots and he’ll win zip.

Does anyone actually believe McIlroy still has it in him to string together four good rounds at a Major? I don’t.

I don’t know about what he may or may not win, but I know I go through spells of excellent play and spells of very much less so. I would reckon everyone else has more or less similar spells so why not Rory?

 

[Sports_Fanatic]

Much is being made this morning of the fact that Rory McIlroy recorded his PGA Tour personal best of 29 birdies during the last four days, and that this illustrates he is in “good shape” for The Masters.

Pardon me for raining on the press pack’s parade, but he still finished seven shots back, behind a host of more consistent players. He could record 36 birdies at an event, but combine that with 36 dropped shots and he’ll win zip.

Does anyone actually believe McIlroy still has it in him to string together four good rounds at a Major? I don’t.

Yes I believe the current world number four still has the ability to put four rounds together in any tournament, especially the consistency he was playing with before the pandemic. Whether he does in this Masters is another matter and could still be beaten given the depth of talent about but I expect he’ll win more majors.

 

[IanM]

Rory is an excellent player, also a really streaky player. He could as much win at Augusta next month as be heading on on Friday.

 

[Depreston]

Played some of his best golf last year and was looking good till the covid break ?

Just had a kid and he’s carded a ridiculous amount of birdies

From what I seen his issues were with his irons the last couple of weeks ... which I reckon he will be able to sort out as it’s the strongest aspect of his game normally

He can 100% win another major if his form ties up with some luck (see tiger last year)

 

[Billysboots]

Rory is an excellent player, also a really streaky player. He could as much win at Augusta next month as be heading on on Friday.

Totally agree, and that was exactly the point I was trying to make.

29 birdies in a single tournament is good going, but to offset that with 14 dropped shots is not indicative of a player being at the top of his game - certainly not to the extent where he can be considered as being in “good shape” going into The Masters.

I was rather surprised to see some journalists getting so carried away with the suggestion. It’s akin to saying of a player “Wow, he didn’t miss a fairway all week”, and completely ignoring the fact the same player 3-stabbed every green.

The time to get carried away is when his all round game is firing and, on the evidence of the last four days, he is still some way off.

 

[Depreston]

Totally agree, and that was exactly the point I was trying to make.

29 birdies in a single tournament is good going, but to offset that with 14 dropped shots is not indicative of a player being at the top of his game - certainly not to the extent where he can be considered as being in “good shape” going into The Masters.

I was rather surprised to see some journalists getting so carried away with the suggestion. It’s akin to saying of a player “Wow, he didn’t miss a fairway all week”, and completely ignoring the fact the same player 3-stabbed every green.

The time to get carried away is when his all round game is firing and, on the evidence of the last four days, he is still some way off.

The media are just trying to build a narrative to hype it up it'll be the Rory and Tiger show with the Brooks "can turn it on on at any time when a major is on the line"

the real story is Jordan Spieth he wont even get a mention he looks absolutely shot

 

[Blue in Munich]

Totally agree, and that was exactly the point I was trying to make.

29 birdies in a single tournament is good going, but to offset that with 14 dropped shots is not indicative of a player being at the top of his game - certainly not to the extent where he can be considered as being in “good shape” going into The Masters.

I was rather surprised to see some journalists getting so carried away with the suggestion. It’s akin to saying of a player “Wow, he didn’t miss a fairway all week”, and completely ignoring the fact the same player 3-stabbed every green.

The time to get carried away is when his all round game is firing and, on the evidence of the last four days, he is still some way off.

Unfortunately you and I will suffer for having been brought up in an era when we expected the press and media to report the news, and we probably struggle with the fact that the press and media now think they ARE the news.

That, and having to work with facts for a living.

 

[Deleted member 1147]

Only 29?
He’ll never win again ?

 

[KenL]

My hope is that he doesn't win the Masters. He's on my naughty step after snapping his club. ?

 

[rksquire]

Totally agree, and that was exactly the point I was trying to make.

29 birdies in a single tournament is good going, but to offset that with 14 dropped shots is not indicative of a player being at the top of his game - certainly not to the extent where he can be considered as being in “good shape” going into The Masters.

I was rather surprised to see some journalists getting so carried away with the suggestion. It’s akin to saying of a player “Wow, he didn’t miss a fairway all week”, and completely ignoring the fact the same player 3-stabbed every green.

The time to get carried away is when his all round game is firing and, on the evidence of the last four days, he is still some way off.

The winner had 2 dropped shots and 25 birdies over 4 rounds. McIlroy could have made 36 birdies and still not won; birdies is not the problem, he had 3 double bogies and out of position far to often so he's scrambling for pars and single bogeys. I'm not a fan of his stop-start schedule, there's 2 tournaments before Masters, I know he's just had a baby but if I was advising him I'd say your next 3 weeks is all about golf, play at least 1 but preferably both tournaments - not least because even though he played these 2 weeks, there was no cut threat.

 

[Billysboots]

That, and having to work with facts for a living.

Ain’t that the truth........!

?

 

[Yorkshire Hacker]

You can't deny Rory's incredible talent. Sadly, I have no time for the man, and it's nothing to do with him being from Northern Ireland, I have many friends there.
When I saw him snap his club t'other day, I was incensed. What an incredibly bad example he sets to youngsters coming into the game. Bloomin' spoiled brat were my first thoughts. It is such a shame, because the way he can strike a ball is mind blowing.
I would like to see Matt Fitzpatrick win the Masters. There's an unspoiled decent Yorkshire lad!

 

[Depreston]

You can't deny Rory's incredible talent. Sadly, I have no time for the man, and it's nothing to do with him being from Northern Ireland, I have many friends there.
When I saw him snap his club t'other day, I was incensed. What an incredibly bad example he sets to youngsters coming into the game. Bloomin' spoiled brat were my first thoughts. It is such a shame, because the way he can strike a ball is mind blowing.
I would like to see Matt Fitzpatrick win the Masters. There's an unspoiled decent Yorkshire lad!

Joking aren’t you I like Fitzpatrick but his whingey comments about Bryson were bratty as anything

 

[Yorkshire Hacker]

He's still quite young, I will allow him the odd outburst. Haven't seen him snapping his clubs......yet!!
And as he's from Yorkshire, he will generally "tell it how it is"!!

 

[Deleted member 18588]

He's still quite young, I will allow him the odd outburst. Haven't seen him snapping his clubs......yet!!
And as he's from Yorkshire, he will generally "tell it how it is"!!

Or in other words use the fact that he is from Yorkshire as an excuse for talking rubbish.

 

[Orikoru]

Joking aren’t you I like Fitzpatrick but his whingey comments about Bryson were bratty as anything

Yeah, his Bryson comments were nothing but pure jealousy and bitterness. Thought he came off extremely poorly, he went right down in my estimation.

 

[Sports_Fanatic]

Totally agree, and that was exactly the point I was trying to make.

29 birdies in a single tournament is good going, but to offset that with 14 dropped shots is not indicative of a player being at the top of his game - certainly not to the extent where he can be considered as being in “good shape” going into The Masters.

I was rather surprised to see some journalists getting so carried away with the suggestion. It’s akin to saying of a player “Wow, he didn’t miss a fairway all week”, and completely ignoring the fact the same player 3-stabbed every green.

The time to get carried away is when his all round game is firing and, on the evidence of the last four days, he is still some way off.

I just don't really understand your logic - we know golfers try to trend upwards for the majors knocking off "rust" in the events beforehand. Rory has just finished top 20 (after similar placing last week) with a lot of birdies suggesting some elements are going well and that he needs to tweak other parts; in this case his driving which is normally a strong element. Yes it's not the perfect game but rarely do the majority of players in with a chance of winning go in with everything perfect in prior rounds.

Otherwise you're saying that only the likes of JT, Cantlay and Rahm are going in to the Masters in "good shape" which I expect a lot of the pros won't consider to be the case, particularly for Rory who has shown his game can go well at Augusta.

For the most part I agree with others that it's just people writing column inches and trying to find a story as build up to an event. And whilst I don't see it as hugely relevant I struggle to argue that Rory is in "bad shape" currently given he's clearly there or thereabouts if he has a good week.

I guess i'm struggling to see how anybody can argue that a World Number 4, finishing top 25 in recent events and with top 10 finishes at the Masters in the last 5 years can be ruled as a no chance. Quite clearly he's going to have a lot of mental pressure on his majors given build up and not winning recently but he's certainly capable of doing it. Still fun of sport that people see things so differently on who they consider likely to win.

 

[fundy]

According to the betting hes joint 2nd fav and has about a 7% chance of winning. The favourite and in form Bryson has just over a 10% chance.

Anyone saying he has no chance is welcome to their opinion, do I think he will win, no, does he have as good a chance as almost everyone, yep

 

[Yorkshire Hacker]

Or in other words use the fact that he is from Yorkshire as an excuse for talking rubbish.

Ha Ha! Old expression about Yorkshiremen. "You can say what you like to a Yorkshireman........but you can't TELL him anything!!"