A couple of weeks back, you might have figured Rory McIlroy’s game had packed its bags and eloped with a lucrative sponsorship deal, leaving behind a baffled Irishman and a gaping sponsorship void.
His act at the FedEx Cup opener in Memphis was, to put it mildly, a masterclass in a man battling his own golf clubs. But then, as if a lightning bolt of pure, unadulterated change of scenery struck him, McIlroy popped up in St. Louis for the BMW Championship. Suddenly, he was playing golf with the kind of effortless swagger that makes you wonder if the previous week was just a particularly nasty, self-inflicted hallucination.
He shot a bogey-free 64, a score that implies either a spiritual awakening between man and metal, or just the planets aligning perfectly over Bellerive Country Club. This display of pure, unadulterated ball-striking and nerve-janglingly good putting puts him right at the top of the leaderboard. It’s a spot that suits a chap with his talent far better than the golfing purgatory he seemed to be stuck in just days before.
In a twist that made the golf gods chuckle, Scottie Scheffler, the undisputed king of the golf world, found himself paddling around at two-over-par. That’s a pretty grim destination for a guy who’d recently left the entire field in his dust by eight shots. It turns out even the most exalted among us can get a bit wobbly in this maddening game. It’s a truth as old as time and considerably more likely to make you want to throw your clubs into the nearest water hazard.
McIlroy, ever the picture of humble charm (or perhaps just expertly managing expectations), simply said he’d “gotten himself back in a frame of mind” and was “back on the right path.” You’ve got to love that understated delivery. One can only hope this path is paved with more of these brilliant days, though he wisely admitted it’s still a “work in progress.”
The secret sauce to this sudden resurgence seems to be a return to the fundamentals, and maybe a golf course that’s a bit more forgiving. McIlroy pointed out that this particular layout, unlike the tight, unforgiving fairways of Memphis, lets you spray it around a bit off the tee. That little bit of breathing room clearly suits his particular brand of controlled mayhem. After a month off following The Open, a quick chat with swing guru Michael Bannon seems to have recalibrated the whole operation with astonishing speed.
You have to wonder if all those former US Open champions, like Gary Woodland and Wyndham Clark, sharing the early lead is a statistical quirk or some sort of celestial wink towards the sheer, unadulterated challenge of America’s toughest test. Clark, for his part, brushed it off as a mere "coincidence," a stoic denial that really tells you everything. In the end, that early leaderboard is just like most things in golf – fleeting, a quick snapshot before the real story gets written.