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Rory McIlroy concedes he cannot use his unease at playing without crowds as an excuse as he looks to end his lengthy major drought in the US PGA Championship.<\/p>\nRory McIlroy concedes he cannot use his unease at playing without crowds as an excuse as he looks to end his lengthy major drought in the US PGA Championship.<\/p>\n
McIlroy has struggled to perform to his best in the PGA Tour\u2019s fan-free environment since it returned in June, recording a best finish of 11th in five events since the restart.<\/p>\n
That contrasts sharply with his form before the sport was forced to shutdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, the four-time major winner finishing third in the Farmers Insurance Open and then fifth in each of his next three starts.<\/p>\n
McIlroy admits he has found it \u201ceasy to lose focus\u201d without the noise and excitement generated by spectators but is hoping memories of his 2015 WGC-Cadillac Match Play victory at this week\u2019s venue of Harding Park will work in his favor.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously it isn\u2019t new to us at this point. We\u2019ve been back playing on Tour for the last eight or nine weeks or whatever it is,\u201d McIlroy said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve found myself looking at leaderboards a little more just to see where I am on there and see where other people are. There\u2019s no feedback from anywhere else; there\u2019s even no scoreboard holders, so you don\u2019t even know how the guys in your group are doing, (but) at this point we should all be used to it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all wish that we were playing in front of fans and have it feel like a real major championship, but I think we\u2019re just lucky that we\u2019re able to play golf tournaments at this point.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me personally, it\u2019s just taken a little while to get used to that. It\u2019s five tournaments in, I should be pretty much adapted to it now. If having to play golf without fans, if that\u2019s in the forefront of my mind as one of my biggest concerns, then everything is okay.\u201d<\/p>\n
McIlroy\u2019s last major victory came in the 2014 US PGA Championship at Valhalla, since when he has recorded 10 top-10 finishes in the game\u2019s four biggest events.<\/p>\n
Asked if a lack of victories in the majors weighed on him, McIlroy added: \u201cIt doesn\u2019t keep me up at night and I don\u2019t think about it every day, but when I play these major championships it\u2019s something that I\u2019m obviously reminded of.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would have liked to have won a couple more majors in that time frame, and I feel like I\u2019ve had a couple of decent chances to see do so and I just haven\u2019t got the job done.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the good thing is we have at least three opportunities this year, and then hopefully if things normalize going forward, four opportunities. So we\u2019re playing seven major championships in the next 12 months basically. I\u2019ve got plenty of opportunities coming my way.\u201d<\/p>\n
McIlroy\u2019s patchy recent form was perfectly summed up by his scores in the WGC-FedEx St Jude Invitational last week, the 31-year-old shooting 73-66-73-67 to finish in a tie for 47th.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s been good scores in there,\u201d McIlroy added. \u201cI shot a 63 at Colonial, a 65 to make the cut at Hilton Head, a 63 at Travelers, a couple of good scores last week in Memphis. So the good stuff is in there, it\u2019s just the sharpness and being efficient with my scoring.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m driving it well. My iron play is good for the most part. It\u2019s just getting that key up-and-down to keep momentum going, holing a putt here or there to keep the round going for the day.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven the mediocre scores that I\u2019ve shot I\u2019ve come off the golf course thinking, well, I actually didn\u2019t play too badly, I just didn\u2019t get a lot out of the round.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I can just keep playing like that and keep being a little bit more efficient with my scoring, I\u2019ll be right where I need to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
McIlroy won seven straight matches at Harding Park in 2015 to lift the Match Play title and although the course set up and routing will be slightly different, such good memories can only be a plus for the world number three.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think if I remember anything about the week is that I played well when I needed to and I hit good shots at the right times, and that\u2019s sort of what you need to do in match play,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s nice to have some memories around a golf course that you\u2019re playing a major championship on. It\u2019s nice to have those memories and be able to recall some of the shots that you\u2019ve hit.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully some of that can help me this week and can rekindle that sort of form that helped me win here a few years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n