Rory McIlroy now has 10 days of certain continued hard work on the range before teeing-up in the U.S. Open and in what will be the 10th anniversary of a maiden major championship victory.
It was Father’s Day 2011 when McIlroy brilliantly buried his Masters losing demons to spread eagle the field and break all sorts of records to capture the U.S. Open championship at the Congressional club on the outskirts of the U.S. capital.
Ten years ago, McIlroy had also competed in the Memorial in a final warm-up ahead of the U.S. Open but in the 2011 edition of ‘Jack’s Event’, he superbly shared fifth place but fast forward nine-years and 50 weeks and the present World No. 8 walked from the Muirfield Village course sharing 20th place posting a closing round level par 72 for a one-under tally.
Checking McIlroy’s scorecard he produced five good birdies but yet again, coloured his hard-earned work with just as many blue-coloured bogeys, and also failing to break 70 on any of the four days of the initial weather-affected Euro 7.6m event.
McIlroy now has this week and three official practice rounds before teeing-up on the South Course at Torrey Pines and in what also will be a milestone 50th career major.
If there’s a silver-lining awaiting McIlroy on the cliff tops Torrey Pines layout overlooking the expanse of the Pacifci Ocean is that he’s had a T3rd (2019) and a T5th (2018) in his past three Farmers Insurance Open appearances, and a PGA Tour event held early in the year but over both the South and North courses to the north of San Diego
“When you think about it, whenever you break 70 at Torrey Pines, even the week of the Farmers, it’s a good score,” said McIlroy.
“So, and I think with, I mean, looking at the highlights, the greens got super bumpy and fast and that’s sort of what happens the weekend of the U.S. Open.
“Typically if they get like that you’re just being very defensive on the greens, you’re just sort of 2-putting and going on. So, it’s a good recipe for a high-scoring event”.
Shane Lowry superbly fought back from three bogeys in his opening four holes to birdie three in succession ahead of birdies at 13 and 14 in a closing 70 for a four-under par tally.
The effort handed the Clara golfer and then clubhouse share of sixth place and what would be a first top-10 in four Memorial showings along with a third top-10 in his past four events.
“Yeah, I’m excited to be heading now to Torrey Pines,” said Lowry.
“I’m coming off a decent week at Kiawah and another decent week here, got a week off next week, so I’m excited to go out to Torrey Pines and hopefully, you know, a place that I really like.
“I haven’t played there in a while but I’ve shot a couple of decent scores there. Obviously that’s in the tournament that’s there at the start of the year and it’s obviously going to be a different golf course when we get there for the U.S. Open.
“So, I know the golf course quite well and it would be nice to be able to go there and kind relax myself into the week and hopefully kind of get off to a good start and hopefully put up another good performance”.
