Opinion: Why has Rory McIlroy lost his winning touch?

As Tiger Woods wrote a new chapter in the history of the game, Rory McIlroy faltered to a final round 74. Neil Tappin asks why has Rory McIlroy lost his winning touch?

Why has Rory McIlroy lost his winning touch?

As Tiger Woods was busy writing a new chapter in the history of the game by winning the 2018 Tour Championship, Rory McIlroy became the forgotten man in the final pairing at East Lake. Starting the day three behind Woods on a score of -9, a flurry of mistakes on the front nine took him out of contention. Clearly frustrated by his malfunctioning swing, McIlroy relied largely on his short game for a four over-par round of 74.

In many ways, this was a fitting end to a season of near misses for Rory McIlroy. With $4 million won on the PGA Tour alone which included seven top 10s and victory at Bay Hill, the Northern Irishman’s 2018 season could hardly be described as a failure especially when you add a further three top 10s on the European Tour.

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This year, heading into the final round, Rory McIlroy has had eight good chances to win but only managed to get over the line once. Of course, not even Tiger Woods in his pomp would have converted all of these but there is no hiding the fact that his conversion percentage doesn’t look good. This will have hurt the Northern Irishman especially when you look at many of his closest rivals who were able to win multiple times on the PGA Tour (Thomas 3, Johnson 3, Koepka 2, Rose 2, Day 2).

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Even with a talismanic performance in a victorious European Ryder Cup team, McIlroy’s 2018 season will raise important questions about his game under pressure. Quite simply, he needs to answer the question - why hasn’t he won more?

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His final round at East Lake, like his closing 18 at Augusta and Firestone revealed a player suddenly fighting his swing. For a player of such ball-striking prowess, he was battling big misses that sent him steadily reversing down the leaderboard. For McIlroy and his coach, Michael Bannon, understanding why these two-way misses are happening as the tension rises is the big question they need to answer.

By contrast, we were reminded of Tiger’s killer instinct during the final round at the Tour Championship. He suffocated his challengers by compiling a largely mistake-free round.

Perhaps the best motivation for solving this conundrum was playing alongside Woods himself, watching this monumental achievement unfold at close-quarters. If McIlroy can rediscover a degree of control to match his awesome power when it matters most, he will surely get over the line more consistently in 2019.

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In July 2023, Neil became just the 9th editor in Golf Monthly's 112-year history. Originally working with the best coaches in the UK to produce instruction content, he went on to become a feature writer interviewing many of the biggest names in the game including Tiger Woods, Seve Ballesteros, Rory McIlroy and Arnold Palmer.

A 5-handicap golfer, Neil is a club member who takes a keen interest in the health of the game at grassroots level. You’ll often now find him writing about club-related issues such as WHS, membership retention and how best to bridge the gap between the range and the course.