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Jeff Jacobs: Rory McIlroy Loves This Course, This Field And His Chances
| CROMWELL
Leading PGA TOUR players tee off at the 2017 Travelers Celebrity Pro-Am at TPC River Highlands on Wednesday morning in Cromwell.
In the weeks following Rory McIlroy's February commitment to the Travelers Championship, Andy Bessette crossed paths with the world's third-ranked golfer at a PGA Tour event.
"He told me, 'I studied the whole course, hole by hole,'" said Bessette, Travelers executive vice president and chief administrative officer. "He goes, 'I can win on this.' I'm like, 'Hell yeah! Let's go for it.'"
In the minutes following his first 18 holes on TPC River Highlands during the celebrity pro-am, McIlory scrolled through the blueprint of his first Travelers Championship appearance. By the time he was finished, McIlroy had scrolled through the blueprint for his career.
"This course is a little sort of hybrid of Akron [the Firestone Country Club] and Quail Hollow [in Charlotte]," McIlroy said. "It reminds me a bit of Akron on some of the holes on the front nine. The last few holes, you've got 15, which is drivable, sort of a flatter version of 14 at Quail Hollow. And then you got the holes around the lake at the end. I love it. It's my sort of golf course.
"With the storm on Monday, the ball's not going anywhere once it hits. So it's pretty much target golf from there. Hopefully the breeze continues over a few days and it firms up a little bit. I can see why Jim Furyk shot 58 last year."
After scoring a TKO Twitter victory over a trolling Steve Elkington a few days ago, McIlroy is looking to score his first PGA Tour victory of 2017. He is a big name in a big-name field at an event that traditionally draws some of golf's biggest crowds. While the patrons undoubtedly will find McIlroy, the question is whether McIlroy, knocking the remnants of rust off his game, will find the $1.224 million winner's check that goes with the Travelers Championship trophy.
McIlroy, who missed a month between The Players Championship and the U.S. Open with a rib injury, said he has no apprehension about playing a second week in a row. He said he feels good.
"Really good," said McIlroy, who won the FedEx Cup championship last year. "I think I'm managing it the right way now and concentrating on playing, concentrating on my short game, not hitting as many balls. I'll hit balls maybe 30, 40 minutes max and that's really it."
In a perfect world, McIlroy said, the high-stress U.S. Open wouldn't have been his return. After a 6-over 78 first round at Erin Hills, he started finding fairways and greens with a 71 on Friday. He missed the cut.
"I hit my stride a little too late," McIlroy said. "I played well the last nine holes Friday. I was just trying to shake the rust off before that."
There is a short game at work with McIlroy and there is a long game. Not all of it has to do with this golf course he said he loves. Some of it is being played in the vexing gray course between the ears. Some of it is in the future of a 28-year-old, who has won four major championships, hasn't won since 2014, yet plans on winning a bunch more.
"It's going to be 10 years in September that I'm a pro and I'm sort of looking at it as a 10-year journey," McIlroy said. "If I look back over 10 years, am I happy with where my career's at? I would say, 'Yeah, I guess.' But I definitely feel like in the next 10 years, 2018 to 2027, that I can do better."
With Nike getting out of the golf equipment business, McIroy has different clubs this year. He married Erica Stoll at Ashford Castle in Ireland in April. By marrying an American, he is able to establish permanent residence.
"I always felt 2017 was going to be a bit of a transitional year," McIlroy said. "I didn't factor an injury into that as well. I've still got two majors to play in … I feel for me 2017 is my window to do as much as I can to make my mark on my game."
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He hurt his wrist in 2011 trying to whack a ball from a tree root. In 2015, he hurt his ankle playing soccer. Even his rib injury, he has said, came from testing new golf equipment, not from lifting weights.Yet when you are a young, hot, commodity that cools off, there never is a shortage of people telling you exactly what your problem is.
Last week, Elkington, the 54-year-old 1995 PGA Championship winner, tweeted that McIlroy must be "so bored playing golf" since Tiger Woods isn't playing and that his threshold is probably four majors and $100 million in the bank. McIlroy tweeted back more like $200 million and that's not bad for a "bored" 28 year old with more to come. For some crazy reason, Elkington decided he wanted more. He tweeted he "new" McIlroy was a money guy and that Jack Nicklaus won 18 majors and never mentioned cash.
"That's why Jack designed 100s of golf courses," McIlroy tweeted back. "And it's knew ... mustn't have taught grammar in the 50's."
Game. Set. Match. Rory.
It's ridiculous. McIlroy has been criticized for not having enough passion to excel, yet also has been criticized for working out too hard in the gym, essentially showing too much passion. Last year, former player Brandel Chamblee of the Golf Channel said he was concerned that McIlroy was following Tiger Woods down a "destructive path … when I see the things that he's doing in the gym."
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File it all under the headline: Lots of weight on a guy who isn't lifting weights.
"Yeah, it's hard," McIlroy said. "You feel like golf is a nostalgic game, so people are, 'it wasn't like it used to be.' But there is this new way of coming through that you need to modernize golf. There are some people that are sort of stuck in the era that they played and some people that want to move on from that.
"Honestly, I haven't lifted a weight all year, and it's tough for me to come out and sort of say I don't. But literally the most I've lifted in the gym is 15 pounds this year because of my injury. I'm nowhere near as strong as I used to be. But I don't need to be. I feel like physically if I'm stable and I'm strong in the right areas, I'm OK. So at least I can't be criticized for that this year."
McIlory welcomed the news that the PGA Tour is beginning blood testing, calling it a massive step in the right direction. He said he reached out to Woods after Tiger had tweeted out that he was getting "professional help" to handle medications, pain and lack of sleep following his arrest in Florida. He said he has built a good relationship with Woods inand that Woods is thankful for the outpouring of love the past few weeks.
Mostly, he was asked and talked about winning. There have been seven first-time major winners in a row and nine since he last won one. He talked about the modern game of golf and how those first-time winners are long hitters who are going to the driver more and more. If you're hitting fairways that week, the course becomes so much easier.
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"I felt like when you watched Tiger dominate, it was a little more of a conservative game," McIlroy said. "Guys just aren't afraid to be aggressive and to score. I think the depth of talent out there is as deep as it's ever been."
And that, McIlroy said, is Tiger's biggest impact. Golf used to be a hobby for kids. Now they want to win tournaments like Tiger.
"You look at this class of '11, I guess, you've got Justin Thomas, and Jordan [Spieth], and Daniel Berger, and all these guys are coming through. It's great for the game. You might not see a dominant player like we've seen in the past, but it's not necessarily a bad thing. Obviously, I'd love to try to emulate some of that dominance, but I think in this day and age, it's just a little more difficult."
He looked around at the Travelers. Spieth, Jason Day, Thomas, Furyk, Bubba Watson. He looked out at his sort of golf course. He saw birdies.
"There is an awesome feel this week," McIlroy said.
He likes his chances. A lot.
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