Rory McIlroy still figuring out Jack’s Place

DUBLIN, Ohio – For as long as Rory McIlroy has played the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday – and this will mark his 12th start at Muirfield Village – he’s “loved” the course, he said Wednesday.

He just hasn’t always played it well, a conundrum best illustrated by the fact that he’s never won here.

Even more telling were his first two rounds of 63-78 in 2014.

“I missed fairways; that was the main thing,” he said after his disastrous second round.

Fast forward to today, and McIlroy, 34, is still not entirely in his element at Jack’s Place.

“I think the one thing here, if you look at the recent winners, maybe apart from Jon (Rahm), they have all been sort of like medium-length hitters,” he said. “I only hit four drivers on this golf course. Four or five. So, it takes the driver out of my hand a lot. A lot of fairways bottle neck at like 330, 340. And it's, I have to – the biggest weapon in my bag isn't quite the weapon that it is at some other golf courses.”

Patrick Cantlay, a two-time Memorial winner, isn’t exactly short, and neither is five-time Memorial champion Tiger Woods. Still, the disconnect remains for McIlroy, who hasn’t come particularly close to winning here, his best result a T4 in 2016. His last three finishes at Muirfield Village: T18, T18, T32.

He comes into this week in the midst of an up and down season. He’s been really good (he banked his 23rd and most recent PGA TOUR win at THE CJ CUP in South Carolina last October) and not good at all (missed cuts at the Masters Tournament and THE PLAYERS Championship).

He’s also been average – a T47 at the Wells Fargo Championship at his beloved Quail Hollow Club.

Most recently, McIlroy struggled to hit fairways at Oak Hill (23 of 56, including just two hit fairways in Round 1) but limited the damage to finish T7 at the PGA Championship.

“I can't remember a time where I felt so uncomfortable over the ball for four days,” he said Wednesday. “So, I needed to go back home and work on some things and, yeah, feeling a lot better about it, not fighting the club face quite as much.

“Feel a little bit more free, which is obviously a nice feeling,” he added.

There are four par 5s at Muirfield Village, which should allow for McIlroy to attack. It just hasn’t happened, which he allowed has been mildly surprising. He’ll need to do better off the tee this week – he’s 189th in Driving Accuracy – if he wants to turn that around.

He’s also 144th in Strokes Gained: Putting.

There’s no shortage of opinions on what he needs to do to start winning again – and that’s just when he crosses paths with Memorial Tournament host Jack Nicklaus.

“He's not afraid to voice his opinion,” said a grinning McIlroy. “I'll go in the lunchroom at the Bear's Club sometimes and if I'm coming off a, like say an average week on TOUR the week before and I see Jack in the lunchroom, I'm like, Oh, no, what's he going to say to me.” He laughed, quickly pivoting to praise the 18-time major winner for his manifold contributions to children’s healthcare and other charities.

For world No. 3 McIlroy, those average weeks have been relatively scarce, but they still pop up from time to time, just as they did for Woods and Nicklaus. McIlroy, who is embarking on a stretch of four consecutive tournaments (Memorial, RBC Canadian Open, U.S. Open, Travelers Championship), does not sound worried.

Neither does Nicklaus. When asked about McIlroy’s drought in the majors, which is coming up on nine years, Nicklaus referenced the younger player’s final-round swoon at the 2011 Masters, which he was in position to win until a final-round 80. He won the U.S. Open by eight shots two months later.

The takeaway: McIlroy is a fast learner.

“He's still going to win a lot of tournaments,” Nicklaus said.

He’ll have four chances in the next four weeks, starting Thursday at Muirfield Village.