Just 24 hours before his story Consecutive Masters win, Rory McIlroy headed for the practice area, frustrated but determined. His swing wasn’t quite there – and he knew it.
If he was to secure his second green jacket, he needed to fix the mistake that had just cost him his six-shot lead — and fast. Shot after shot, he stayed with it, working through the feelings until something clicked.
After the win, he talked about the adjustment he found after Saturday’s round.
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“My fairway was going a little too far to the right with every club in the bag. So I was getting too far into draw,” McIlroy said, “Then when the fairway is coming from that far inside, if you don’t keep your body moving at all, the ball is just going to go dead left.”
McIlroy was swinging too far inside, which led him to big draws. When his lower body slowed or stalled from impact, his upper body and hands took over—closing his face and turning the inside track into a hook that went hard left.
Fixing Rory’s swing
To fix this flaw, McIlroy leaned on a simple feel: shots that forced his body to keep moving.
“I focused on hitting like a couple of cut shots, focusing on really trying to open up my lower body through the swing,” he said, “When I do that, it helps stabilize the clubface and start the ball more on line with more of a neutral flight.”
Hitting these controlled cutting shots gave him lower-body drive feel, improved his alignment and prevented his hands from becoming too active—turning his cooked pull back into a controlled, reliable ball flight.
And according to McIlroy, it’s that same feeling he carried with him into Sunday’s final round.
“That was really the feeling I tried to get last night, and that was the feeling I brought today. Starting on the first hole, I hit some much better iron shots,” McIlroy said.
