St. Louis, Missouri …
Rory McIlroy insists he remains an ‘eternal optimist’ as he strives this week to end a four-year Majors victory drought and become a three per-cent victory component in the 100th PGA Championship celebrations.
McIlroy’s pre-PGA Championship plans, and that of his fellow Bellerive competitors, have been thrown into somewhat disarray when the heatwave conditions of Monday gave way to fierce electrical storms and stoppages on Tuesday.
McIlroy managed to just play five holes before yet another siren sounded near lunch to call players from the course.
The new Word No. 5 arrived into St. Louis late on Sunday after his Akron anguish when shouldered aside by Justin Thomas as the American stormed to victory in the WGC – Bridgestone Invitational.
Rory McIlroy and looking to end this week a four-year drought in the Majors.
Yet despite the disappointment McIlroy says he remains the ‘internal optimist’ in a goal to end a four-year Majors drought, and in the centenary staging of the PGA.
“Even since winning my last Major in 2014 I’ve given myself some half chances at Majors,” he said.
“My best chance since Valhalla was at The Open at Carnoustie, but in golf you just have to be an eternal optimist. You have to make the most of everything you have to see the positives and just move on and forget about it and that’s what I’ve tried to do this year is the times where I haven’t won and I haven’t played my best, I try to learn from it and I move on.
“There’s no point in reflecting on it too much or dwelling on it. You just have to turn up to the next tournament, and it’s a fresh start.
“And even this week’s a fresh start for me after what happened on Sunday. It’s another chance to give myself a chance to win a golf tournament.
“This week also is a big milestone for the tournament and it’s a big milestone for the PGA of America, so it’s going to be cool as we have the Champions Dinner tonight, and you have, I’m sure there will be a video played and a look back through the hundred years of the tournament.
“So, to be a part of that history and to get my name on that trophy a couple of times is very cool.
“And if I was able to win this week, that would be three times out of a hundred, which 3 percent’s a pretty good ratio in this tournament, if I were to be able to do that. But it’s cool. The 100th year of anything is a big deal and, yeah, I’m glad to be a part of the history of it.”
History, however, now shows McIlroy has played in 43 Majors since his debut at the game’s highest level in 2007 and aside for his four brilliant triumphs, including winning the PGA in 2012 and 2014, he’s also been runner-up just on a month ago, while he’s had three third place results and nine other top-10s.
Ryder Cup captain, Thomas Bjorn has every faith in McIlroy and going so far for the Dane to suggest he would pay to go and watch McIlroy play when Bjorn was quizzed on an assessment one of his Versailles strong men.
“Rory’s in a place where he’s contending every week, and as a player, you go through spells where you don’t quite get over the line, but he’s still contending every week, and I admire his patience and I admire the way he goes about it because a lot of other players would feel it a lot more when you get yourself in that position and don’t quite get over the line,” said Bjorn.
“So, I admire the way he goes about it, and he is such quality, and he — I watched him so much play over the last few months, and I just think he’s in a place where it’s going to go boom and then he’s going to start winning a lot of golf tournaments again, and that’s actually pretty good fun to watch.
“He’s going through that spell that all players go through at some stage where, yeah, not quite winning them but we’re still there.
“And then eventually when he wins that one, then I think he’ll just start rolling again because when you watch him play, I mean, as a golfer and a guy that’s played golf since I was 3 years old, I’ll pay money to go and watch him.”
