McIlroy Finishes Well Down Genesis Leaderboard But Admits His Game Is Close

2 years ago by Comments Off on McIlroy Finishes Well Down Genesis Leaderboard But Admits His Game Is Close

Rory McIlroy may have finished well outside the top-20 at the close of the Genesis Invitational but once again he’s way out front when it comes to ‘off the tee’ PGA Tour stats.

Little wonder McIlroy admitted his game was close after posting a no-frills final round of 70 for a five-under par tally on the host Riviera course.

It left him trailing a whopping 12 shots behind Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama who cut a swath through the field on day four, birdieing his opening three holes and then six over his inward nine in a blistering 62 to win with a 17-under tally.

Remarkably, the soon-to-be 32-year-old Matsuyama was declared the winner while the overnight leaders still had a handful of holes to play but none were going to catch the now $US3m richer Japanese No. 1.

McIlroy’s closing round was a mix of back-to-back opening birdies but then back-to-back bogeys four and five and an inward half of birdies at 11 and 17 while he dropped a third shot of his round at the 14th.

The World No. 2 indicated he was taking a fortnight off from the Tour ahead of contesting the three events on the ‘Florida Swing’ – newly-named Cognizant Classic at PGA National (Feb 29 – March 3), Arnold Palmer Invitational (March 7-10) and the Players Championship (March 14-17) – ahead of another fortnight off week before his final event before the Masters and that being the April 4th to 7th Valero Texas Open at TPC San Antonio.

“I think that I’m close. I’m not quite where I want to be,” McIlroy said when asked about his game.

“It’s one of these courses where you know that precision is so important and putting your ball in the right areas and if you’re just slightly off your weaknesses sort of get magnified this week.”

A check of those Genesis Invitational status showed McIlroy is 1st in strokes gained off the tee, second in driving distance (Average 310.80) and first with a longest drive all week of 358 yards.

Of the 14 statistic categories McIlroy is ranked the poorest and that is 50th in both ‘putts per GIR’ (1.8) and ‘total putts – 29.75.

And McIlroy was asked after his round if he felt for World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler as he battles putting woes, but stated  he’s also relieved that the World No.1 “is giving the rest of us a chance”.

Scheffler posted a closing 68 to share 10th place.

“We’ve all been through it,” McIlroy said of Scheffler who is currently ranked 137th on overall putting.

“I’ve certainly been through my fair share of putting woes over the years and I finally feel like I have broken through and become a pretty consistent putter.

“For me going to a mallet was a big change. I really persisted with the blade putter for a long time, but I just feel like your stroke has to be so perfect to just start the ball online, where the mallet just gives you a little bit more margin for error.

“And that to me gave me confidence that I could go forward with that knowing that even if I don’t put a perfect stroke on it, they’re not going to go too far offline.

“So I would love to see Scotty try a mallet, but selfishly for me you know Scottie does everything else so very well that he’s given the rest of us a chance.”



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