Why Rory McIlroy's Silence Might Lead To US Open Glory This Weekend

Rory McIlroy shut down LIV questioning at last month's PGA Championship and he went a lot further this week after his pre-US Open press conference was cancelled.

The 2011 US Open winner was scheduled to speak to media at 9am on Tuesday morning but his conference was no longer listed by Monday and we've barely heard a peep out of him.

It seems he's taking a line out of Brooks Koepka's book into this week's US Open, with the recent PGA Champion telling media on Tuesday that he is "able to focus on whatever I need to focus on while everybody else is dealing with distractions, worried about other things."

Had McIlroy spoken to media on Tuesday, there would be dozens upon dozens of stories online, newspaper pages and images and videos across social media of his views on the PGA Tour/PIF merger - the question on everyone's lips, especially for the PGA Tour 'de-facto' spokesperson.

I would have loved to have heard his thoughts one week on from the news and written a story myself, I'm sure, but is that the best thing for his game right now? Definitely not.

McIlroy is clearly dealing with the huge news behind-the-scenes after revealing last week that his press conference ahead of the RBC Canadian Open was the "most uncomfortable" he has felt in the last 12 months.

It was clear he was still processing the news and unclear of what his exact stance on it was, with the Northern Irishman saying he had been a "sacrificial lamb" and that he understood why some would say commissioner Jay Monahan had been hypocritical.

Then there's the issue of how the tour rewards loyal PGA Tour players who didn't join LIV Golf, the European Ryder Cup team, LIV's future, whether the merger will even happen and plenty of other unknowns.

What isn't an unknown, though, is that this week there's a Major championship and they're the events that really matter to someone like Rory McIlroy. Especially as he hasn't won one since August 2014 despite essentially accomplishing everything else in the game since.

His strategy this week seems to be like it's to block out the media questioning and focus on what really matters, his golf game and his preparation and strategy for Los Angeles Country Club.

We've seen him talk to Sky Sports on the 2011 US Open, his maiden Major title, being the best he has ever struck the ball and a walk-and-talk for the Golf Channel on his strategy for certain holes, but on the merger - nothing. That's probably the right decision.

The four-time Major champion has finished inside the top-10 in this event four years running and enters the week in good form after a T7 at the PGA Championship last month,a T9 at the Memorial Tournament two weeks ago and then another T9 in Canada last week.

In all three tournaments he entered the final round in contention to win, or at least challenge on the back nine, and he was unable to get the job done. Perhaps remaining quiet this week and putting all of his energy into his day job will pay off come Sunday evening.