The very best of Rory McIlroy on the golf course was preceded by the Northern Irishman’s latest insight into how the sport can best emerge from a current state of flux. McIlroy would probably rather not be asked questions about a path forward for elite golf. The trouble is, he is exceptionally good at answering them.
Firstly, inside the ropes. McIlroy cut a frustrated figure after playing the front nine of his third round in 38. His response was emphatic. McIlroy roared home in 30 shots, including three birdies in the closing trio of holes, to move firmly into contention at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at five under par. Bay Hill’s ferocious setup, exaggerated by gusting winds, rendered McIlroy’s inward half a superb one. The 34-year-old will begin day four sitting the same number of shots adrift of his close friend Shane Lowry and Scottie Scheffler, the 2022 champion.
McIlroy kickstarted his round by driving the 401yd 10th, which he reduced to 365 yards by taking a gargantuan chunk off the dog leg’s corner. “I played the front nine pretty well,” McIlroy said. “I hit two good shots into one. Hit a great shot into two, hit two good shots into four. I was giving myself loads of looks. Then I hit a decent shot into seven that I then three-putted. I was staying patient then, instead of six pars in a row and then trying to break that with a birdie, I end up making a bogey. So I was pretty frustrated going into the back nine.
“The tee shot on to the green at 10 sort of got me going a little bit. Then I made a great par save on 11 after driving it in the water. Those holes in particular got me going. There are some chances coming in.” McIlroy menacingly reminded the rest of the field here that he felt he won this year’s Dubai Desert Classic “over 27 holes”.
Thereafter, McIlroy was confirmed as the go-to guy for broader matters. His expression was one of curiosity when asked why he is fond of speaking his mind. “Why wouldn’t I speak my mind?” asked the four-time major winner. “You ask me my opinion and I give it to you. I’m not going to stand up here and lie to you.”
The theme centred around how many players should retain cards year on year on the PGA Tour. McIlroy has called for a more “cut-throat” and “competitive” domain. “I just feel like there’s a lot of categories on tour where people are sort of still benefiting off what they did five or 10 years ago,” he added. “I feel like as the most competitive professional golf tour in the world, you should have to come out and prove yourself year after year after year.”
McIlroy is among those frustrated with the fractured nature of golf. The switch of marquee names to the LIV tour means events such as this one have lost kudos. He wants to see the best tournaments in the world enhanced as part of a global circuit.
“Those events still have history and legacy and tradition and all the things that are still very important in golf,” McIlroy said. “I think there’s been some experiments with creating new tournaments out of nothing and I don’t know if they have really captured the imagination of the general public.
“Why is the Masters the Masters, why is this tournament this tournament, why are the more historic tournaments the ones that are revered so much in our game? It’s because they have that history. People remember Ben Hogan winning or Jack Nicklaus. It’s all about trying to bridge the present back to the past and the people that came before us. I think that’s important.” Fans may yet have cause to remember a McIlroy Bay Hill triumph of 2024.
