McIlroy looking to find the range with the putter in Turkey
Rory McIlroy is back to his normal self. He’s hitting the golf ball as long and straight as ever. He’s working out with the kind of intensity he showed before injuring his ankle in July.
And he’s struggling to putt.
The world No. 3, playing in this week’s Turkish Airlines Open on the European Tour, has been working on his approach on the greens, admitting that his problem isn’t technique so much as mindset.
“I think it’s more mental than anything else,” he said. “Whenever you don’t see anything go in, it makes it harder and harder each and every hole that goes by.”
McIlroy is hoping to free up his mind, not putting so much pressure on himself. However, the Ulsterman also admitted that putting isn’t going to be is his strength.
“I feel I’m a good putter. I feel like I hole out well,” he said. “I definitely hole out much better than I used to do. And when I get my eye in, I’m really good. But I don’t get my eye in as much as I’d like to. I’ll always be somewhat of a streaky putter.”
Starting with this week, the four-time major winner will play in three of four European Tour Final Series events, including the WGC-HSBC Champions and DP World Tour Championship. He’ll be playing while world No. 1 Jason Day and No. 2 Jordan Spieth sit on the sidelines, resting after a long year. However, McIlroy isn’t concerned about making up lost ground these next few weeks.
“I’m not thinking about those guys,” McIlroy said. “I’m just concentrating on myself and trying to get my game back to where I know that it can be, and if I can do that, then all the rest of that stuff will sort of take care of itself.”
At a minimum, however, McIlroy wants to snag a trophy in this three-event stretch to close the European Tour season. Ideally, McIlroy would win the season-long Race to Dubai for a third time in four years.
“I’m just trying to finish the season off well. I’d like to win the Race to Dubai for a third time, that would be a great achievement,” he said.
“I’d like to win at least one of these last three events that I’m playing. That would make me feel better about the end of the year.”
Ryan Ballengee is a Yahoo Sports contributor. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.
