How Rory McIlroy Turned His Putting Around

The four-time major winner looks a different man on the greens in 2018 compared to the last few seasons

How Rory McIlroy Turned His Putting Around
Rory McIlroy celebrates at Arnold Palmer Invitational
(Image credit: Getty Images)

The four-time major winner looks a different man on the greens in 2018 compared to the last few seasons

How Rory McIlroy Turned His Putting Around

Rory McIlroy is without a major championship victory since 2014 and there's been one thing letting him down in the years since - putting.

The Northern-Irishman looks to complete the grand slam this week at The Masters and is heavily fancied having looked an entirely different man on the greens in recent weeks.

So how did Rory McIlroy turn his putting around?

Well, having missed the cut at the Valspar Championship in March, McIlroy was a lowly 124th in the PGA Tour's Strokes Gained: Putting statistics, having ranked 140th in 2017.

On the Monday after the Valspar, McIlroy met Brad Faxon for some help on the greens. Faxon, an eight-time PGA Tour winner, is considered one of the best putters in recent history.

Faxon, who is now a PGA Tour Champions player as well as a Fox Sports analyst, also helped Gary Woodland earlier this season prior to his Waste Manegement Phoenix Open victory.

McIlroy has been working with putting guru Phil Kenyon for the last two years but it's unsure if the pair remain together.

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Faxon's philosophy - confidence. He once said, "My only secret is confidence... I just try to hit every putt as if I've just made a million in a row."

Faxon offered McIlroy mental advice, trying to install confidence into a man lacking belief on the greens, having seen far too many birdie opportunities spurned in seasons gone by.

As well as confidence, he also advised the 28-year-old to put in a longer putter - 34 1/2 inches instead of the 33 inch model he currently had in play.

McIlroy left his mallet putter out of the bag and instead opted for a new TaylorMade TP Copper Soto bladed putter and the results at in his next event - the Arnold Palmer Invitational - were phenomenal.

Rory won the tournament, his first victory since September 2016, and had the best putting week of his career.

Rory McIlroy holes the winning putt at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)

He recorded a Strokes Gained: Putting total of +10 which was the best of his career and a huge nine strokes better than the field average.

In total he took just 100 putts over the four days for his lowest ever total on the PGA Tour.

McIlroy is back inside the world's top 10 and looks a complete player once again.

You can never doubt his ball striking ability and when you couple that with imperious putting you create a serial winner.

Can Faxon's input inspire Rory McIlroy to finally win a Green Jacket this week and complete the career grand slam? Only time will tell, but he'll be feeling very good about his chances.

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Elliott Heath
News Editor

Elliott Heath is our News Editor and has been with Golf Monthly since early 2016 after graduating with a degree in Sports Journalism. He manages the Golf Monthly news team as well as our large Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages. He covered the 2022 Masters from Augusta National as well as five Open Championships on-site including the 150th at St Andrews. His first Open was in 2017 at Royal Birkdale, when he walked inside the ropes with Jordan Spieth during the Texan's memorable Claret Jug triumph. He has played 35 of our Top 100 golf courses, with his favourites being both Sunningdales, Woodhall Spa, Western Gailes, Old Head and Turnberry. He has been obsessed with the sport since the age of 8 and currently plays off of a six handicap. His golfing highlights are making albatross on the 9th hole on the Hotchkin Course at Woodhall Spa, shooting an under-par round, playing in the Aramco Team Series on the Ladies European Tour and making his one and only hole-in-one at the age of 15 - a long time ago now!


Elliott is currently playing:


Driver: Titleist TSR4

3 wood: Titleist TSi2

Hybrids: Titleist 816 H1

Irons: Mizuno MP5 5-PW

Wedges: Cleveland RTX ZipCore 50, 54, 58

Putter: Odyssey White Hot OG #5

Ball: Srixon Z Star XV