Prior to the final round of The Masters on Sunday, Rory McIlroy knew he had to make some major adjustments to his game to become repeat champion. He hit the range to fix what caused him to lose his historic lead after round two. After winning the tournament, he detailed what what went wrong.
McIlroy said, “My path was just getting a little bit too far to the right with every club in the bag. So I was just hitting too much of a draw. Then when the path is coming from that far inside, if you don’t keep your body moving at all, the ball is just going to go dead left.”
McIlroy struggled with his driving accuracy in the first three rounds of The Masters. Despite the struggles, it was not a major detriment to this game until the third round when he lost his historic lead.
McIlroy’s Key Change that Helped Him Win The Masters
GettyMcIlroy’s driving accuracy was one of the worst in the field prior to Sunday’s final round.
McIlroy ranked 87th out of 91 in round one, 77th in round two, and 48th out of 54 in round three for driving accuracy per DataGolf. In round three, he was out of position so often that he could not hit great shots on approach. He lost -3.97 strokes on approach in his third round.
In order to get back on track, McIlroy decided to focus on hitting less draws and more cut shots to help control the ball flight.
He said, “I focused on hitting like quite a few cut shots, focused on really trying to open up my lower body through impact. When I do that, it helps me stabilize the club face and start the ball more on line with more of a neutral flight.”
By focusing on that specific change, McIlroy began to feel a lot more comfortable entering the final round.
“That was really the feel that I tried to get last night, and that was the feel I brought into today. Starting at the 1st hole, I hit some much better iron shots.”
McIlroy’s Key Change Led to Masters Victory
GettyMcIlroy was one of the better ball strikers in the field on Sunday at The Masters.
In the final round of The Masters, McIlroy improved his driving accuracy and approach play drastically from the troubling third round. He gained 1.14 strokes on approach and 0.93 off the tee, ranking 15th and 8th in the field respectively out of 54 players who made the cut. His driving accuracy ranked 28th on Sunday.
Clearly, the adjustments McIlroy made helped him get back on track to become the fourth player in the history of The Masters to win back to back. Even though he only shot one under par on the day, McIlroy lost -1.35 strokes putting, showing that he left some strokes on the table. It was a dominant performance to close out the final round of The Masters, and the one stroke victory does not feel like an accurate representation of how well he played on Sunday.
Rory McIlroy Made Key Adjustment Prior to Masters Victory