Rory McIlroy has not finished better than his tie for 19th at The Players in five starts in the United States this year
Rory McIlroy is searching for form after a slow start to the PGA Tour season (Image: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)
Rory McIlroy has been told to shake up his team if he wants to get back to winning ways. The golf star started 2024 brilliantly with a win at the Dubai Desert Classic, but since then, he’s struggled in the US.
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His best finish was 19th place at The Players. Despite being great off the tee, his approach play has let him down. This has stopped him from competing for wins. It’s been ten years since McIlroy won a major, and his chances of completing his career grand slam by winning The Masters next month are looking slim. He’s not playing as well as world number one Scottie Scheffler, who is tipped to win at Augusta National for the second time.
Ex-European Tour player Jamie Spence has called out McIlroy for keeping the same team and told him to make a change to find more consistency. Sky Sports pundit Spence believes McIlroy can still have moments of greatness, but a change behind the scenes could make him more competitive every week.
“I’m not his coach, he’s been with the same team, they’ve been making the same mistakes,” he shared on the Sky Sports Golf Podcast. “It’s a sign of madness isn’t it, expecting a different result from the same actions. You’ve got to change something, he’s got to change something.
McIlroy has struggled for consistency with his irons and wedges this season (Image: GETTY)
“He’s such a good player but even within his streakiness, he can finish fifth, 10th, and keep those results going along. He can still do that. But he’s always been up and down and you just wait for Rory to get back on the surfboard and back on the wave. When he does that, he’s near unbeatable. So I don’t worry about Rory.”
Spence reckons McIlroy’s swing is lacking confidence. He elaborated: “He said himself that ‘It’s not like I’m playing terrible and missing cuts’. But there was no power in his voice, there was no conviction in what he was saying, for me. He knows he’s not on his game and he knows he’s got some gremlins going on in his golf swing at the moment.”
Having completed his final round at TPC Sawgrass on Sunday, McIlroy confessed that he has much to work on ahead of the coming Valero Texas Open in San Antonio on April 4.
“Golf is a very fickle game,” he said. “It gives you one thing and then takes away something else from you. It’s just, again, like, I feel I’ve got all the components there but just trying to put them all together on a given week, that’s the tricky part at the minute.”
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