OAKMONT, Pa. – Rory McIlroy’s driver became the story at last month’s PGA Championship and he is determined not to let that happen at this week’s U.S. Open.
McIlroy’s driver was deemed non-conforming on the Tuesday before the year’s second major and he struggled to a tie for 47th. Those struggles continued last week when he missed the cut at the RBC Canadian Open with rounds of 71-78.
“Every driver sort of has its own character and you’re trying to manage the misses,” McIlroy said Tuesday at Oakmont. “I feel like, as the last few weeks go, I think I learnt a lot on Thursday and Friday last week and did a good bit of practice at home and feel like I’m in a better place with everything going into this week.”
Oakmont promises to be the year’s most demanding driving test with the layout’s narrow fairways ringed with thick, lush rough, and nearly every player agreed it will be critical to find fairways. But when pressed for what he might have learned over the weekend that could help him at the U.S. Open, McIlroy shrugged, “I learned that I wasn’t using the right driver.”
If anyone understands the unique test that is Oakmont it’s McIlroy, who struggled to a missed cut in 2016 the last time the national championship was played in Western Pennsylvania. He also endured the full “Oakmont experience” during a scouting trip last week.
“You hit a ball off the fairway and you were looking for a good couple of minutes just to find it. It’s very penal if you miss,” McIlroy said. “Last Monday felt impossible. I birdied the last two holes for 81. It felt pretty good. It didn’t feel like I played that bad.”
