Rory Mcilroy won Pebble Beach Pro-AM with a more disciplined strategy on the course.
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Rory Mcilroy He won his first 2025 event earlier this month at Pebble Beach Pro-AM, liking the likes of Shane Lowry, Lucas Glover and Justin Rose for his first victory in historical links.
Mcilroy has long been one of the main dogs in the sport, with a resume involving four main titles and 27 PGA Tour titles, but over the last few years he has remained behind the best indisputable player in the sport, Scottie Scheffler. At that time, Scheffler won twice in Augusta National, a course that has breeze Mcilroy famously.
“Scottie is and has been the best player in our game for the past two years,” Mcilroy said. “I feel like I was close, but not only there. But this is motivating, this is motivating to try to get the best out of yourself and yes, to try to become the best player in the world again.”
One of the strategies Mcilroy used? Taking a page from Scheffler’s book in terms of course management.
“I am a great admirer of Scottie for many different reasons, but whenever I play with him and see how he plays and how disciplined he is,” Mcilroy said. “And I’ve alluded to this this week, but honestly, just trying to get a little leaves from his book.”
This strategy worked miraculously for Mcilroy at Pebble Beach – and it can help you shoot lower results. Here’s how.
Use Mcilroy’s new mentality for lower results
When Mcilroy alluded to get a page from Scheffler’s book, he had one thing in mind: course management.
“There are impulses I have in the golf course that looks like Scottie does not,” Mcilroy said. “I have to restore them and I have to try to be a little more disciplined about it and that’s what I’m trying to do.”
Scheffler rarely sometimes becomes incredibly aggressive – and this (plus, of course, the ability to hit him where he wants) keeps it not to find bad points in the course leading to large numbers.
For example, in 2024, Scheffler was ranked second in tours in Bogey avoidance at 9.85 percent. (Xander Schauffle ran the tournament in this statistic as he won two major championships.) That was not because he hit the more spectacular shots than everyone else, but more because he reached his losses and received a large number from the equation.
This is something that always golf -player – no matter the skill level – can apply to their games. But instead of trying to avoid fraud, you should try to avoid double double. When you find trouble, or see a pin stuck in a hard place, don’t try for hero Shot. All you have to do is play like Scheffler and get the big number from the game. Your big number just means something different from its.
