I need to get my stuff together – Rory McIlroy out to end Masters hangover
By Jonathan Veal, PA, Pittsburgh
Rory McIlroy says he has to “get his stuff together” as he looks to shake off his Masters hangover at the US Open this week.
The world number two completed an 11-year quest to win all four majors when he triumphed at Augusta National in April but his form has suffered since.
He tied for 47th at the PGA Championship last month, where he suffered drama when his driver was found to be non-conforming, while he missed the cut at the Canadian Open last week as his struggles off the tee continued.
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The Co Down man has cut himself some slack given his monumental achievement at the Masters.
However, ahead of the US Open at unforgiving Oakmont this week, he knows he has to get his head back in the game.
Asked if he knew how tough it would be to regain his motivation, he said: “I didn’t know. Look, you dream about the final putt going in at the Masters, but you don’t think about what comes next.
“I think I’ve always been a player who struggles to play after a big event, after I win whatever tournament.
“I always struggle to show up with motivation the next week because you’ve just accomplished something and you want to enjoy it and you want to sort of relish the fact that you’ve achieved a goal.
“I think chasing a certain goal for the better part of a decade and a half, I think I’m allowed a little bit of time to relax a little bit.
“I think it’s trying to have a little bit of amnesia and forget about what happened six weeks ago. Then just trying to find the motivation to go back out there and work as hard as I’ve been working.
“But at the same time, you have to enjoy what you’ve just accomplished. I certainly feel like I’m still doing that and I will continue to do that.
“At some point, you have to realise that there’s a little bit more golf left to play this season: here, Portrush [the Open], Ryder Cup, so those are obviously the three big things that I’m sort of looking at for the rest of the year.
“I sort of need to get my stuff together here and get back to the process of what I’d been doing for that seven months from October last year until April this year.”
After missing the cut in Toronto last week, McIlroy said he had “concerns” about his driving coming into a tournament where hitting the fairways will be key to success.
The 2011 US Open champion, who has finished second in the tournament in each of the last two years, spent the weekend practising with a new driver and says he is feeling more confident.
“I feel like, as the last few weeks go, I think I learnt a lot on Thursday and Friday last week and did a good bit of practice at home and feel like I’m in a better place with everything going into this week,” he said.
Asked what information he had gleaned, he quipped: “I learned that I wasn’t using the right driver.”