PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – After locking himself in a swing studio, Rory McIlroy is now getting even more enjoyment from some of the best scenery in golf.
McIlroy’s late-year swing changes seem to already be paying off, as he flagged a number of iron shots Thursday – including a slam-dunk ace – to kick off his PGA Tour season with a 6-under 66 at Spyglass Hill during the first round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
Finally committing himself to a swing change after a busy two years, McIlroy holed up in a studio last October and banged balls into a screen, unable to see the ball flight. He was trying to work on backswing positions that would make his swing more efficient.
The early returns were positive. McIlroy closed out his year with a victory at the DP World Tour Championship and then, for one of the few times in his career, played deep into December, both competitively, at the made-for-TV Showdown, as well as socially, with trips to Ohoopee Match Club, New Zealand and The Grove XXIII for the member-member.
In all, McIlroy put away the clubs for only six or seven days. Most years, he shuts it down for the entire month of December.
“I think that kept me a little sharper,” he said. “I could hit the ground running when I got back into it.”
It looked like a full sprint Thursday at Spyglass, the more difficult of the two courses in the revamped rotation for the Tour’s signature event along the spectacular Monterey Peninsula.
McIlroy led the field in driving distance, averaging 345 yards off the tee, and missed four greens in regulation by a combined few feet during his bogey-free round of 6 under. He ended the day just two shots back of Russell Henley.
The highlight came at the 119-yard 15th, which plays even shorter downhill. Beginning on the back nine, McIlroy was coming off his second three-putt par in his last four holes. But on the short par 3, with water fronting the green, he used a three-quarter sand wedge that soared through the sky, and he waited to see if he’d dialed in his distance.
Turns out it wasn’t just good – it was perfect.
His ball crashed into the front lip and rattled into the bottom of the cup for his second career ace on Tour.
“I don’t see many balls nowadays go straight into the hole and stay in the hole,” he said afterward. “Pretty fortunate because it could have come out and went back in the water or do anything. It was a good swing, a good wedge shot.”
It almost wasn’t his last hole-out, either.
On his final hole of the day, McIlroy sized up a 130-yard approach and nearly jarred it again with a gap wedge, his ball landing a millimeter from the cup before spinning back to 7 feet. He holed that one for a closing birdie.
Wedge play has been a major point of emphasis for McIlroy over the past few years. If he drives the ball as well as he typically does, he figures he’ll have about 50 shots per week from inside 150 yards. He recently talked with sports psychologist Bob Rotella about “taking dead aim” from that scoring range.
“If you’re swinging OK, the ball is not going to curve much from that distance,” he said. “So just taking dead aim and making the most of those tee shots that I hit to get myself into that range.”
McIlroy has shored up that part of his game over the years, but they realized there was still room for improvement – he ranked 115th on Tour last season from 125-150 yards, and 49th in the 100-to-125-yard range.
“In the past I haven’t been as confident with the wedges from that distance; I would play a little right or left of the pins and be a little more careful with my aimpoints,” he said. “Whereas now, if I’m feeling confident with my wedge swing, it’s easier for me to take dead aim and try to hit it as close as possible.”
On Day 1 of another season, McIlroy already looks plenty confident.
Read the full article here