Rory McIlroy practiced one shot time and again this week at TPC Sawgrass, and golf followers noticed him execute it completely on the par-3 seventeenth throughout Monday’s playoff.
After making birdie on the par-5 sixteenth, McIlroy held a one-shot benefit over J.J. Spaun. He once more had the glory, and discovering the floor on this treacherous island inexperienced would put huge stress on his opponent’s shoulders. So McIlroy went to his go-to shot. He hit a flighted three-quarter 9-iron, the best trajectory for gusty circumstances. His ball landed safely in the course of the inexperienced, 38 toes away.
However as McIlroy chosen his membership, Spaun watched him pull out his 9-iron. Feeling considerably perplexed and realizing McIlroy went with 9, Spaun opted for his 8-iron, provided that McIlroy hits a for much longer ball than he does. Granted, after the playoff, Spaun admitted that it was an 8-iron all day, however the visible of Spaun trying out McIlroy’s bag is difficult to disregard. Regardless, Spaun didn’t pull off the shot McIlroy did. As an alternative, he airmailed the inexperienced and located the water together with his 8-iron. His shot reached an apex of 96 toes, considerably larger than McIlroy’s. And if something, he thought it was quick.
“I couldn’t consider it was lengthy,” Spaun mentioned.
“It simply wasn’t my luck of the gust, I suppose.”
That each one however handed the Northern Irishman his second Gamers title and his second victory of 2025. However McIlroy wouldn’t have gotten there with out this specific shot.
“I’ve this little three-quarter three-quarter shot, and my 9-iron goes 147 with that shot. However with the wind, it was going proper round that 130 quantity, which was the quantity I actually needed to hit on 17. So I knew even earlier than I acquired up there, I knew that was the shot I used to be going to hit,” McIlroy mentioned after his win at The Gamers.
“I felt prefer it was just a little extra sheltered by the inexperienced than it was on the tee. When my ball was within the air, I used to be telling it to get down, and clearly, J.J. hit his up within the air, I couldn’t consider that it went straight by the wind like that. Yeah, it was difficult to guage, however I type of had that shot in my head, that little three-quarter, three-quarter 9-iron, and made swing at it.”
As a person who loves #TheProcess, Rory hitting balls down the tee line, and together with his again to the driving vary, so he can see how the wind impacts photographs from completely different instructions, is enthralling. Love the eye to element.
He’s been barely altering traces on his tee photographs, as… pic.twitter.com/Ao8zCzXKxU
— Sean Martin (@PGATOURSMartin) March 17, 2025
Earlier than the playoff began on Monday morning, McIlroy as soon as once more rehearsed this specific shot on the driving vary. To reveal how attentive he’s to essentially the most intricate particulars, McIlroy turned himself towards the third inexperienced at TPC Sawgrass, which helped replicate the wind he would face on 17. He wanted to see how this shot would work right into a stiff breeze, in 53-degree climate, no much less.
“Seeing there was nobody round this morning, it was good to have the ability to simply flip round and hit these photographs within the wind I felt like there was going to be on 17,” McIlroy mentioned.
“This week has been a problem. I’ve went all the way down to the again finish of the vary typically and been hitting the ball like in a left-to-right wind. It’s exhausting to clearly get each winds if you’re warming up, however there have been so many crosswinds this week that that was — I’d go all the way down to the again finish of the vary as a result of I knew that that was the identical path as like the primary tee shot, so I preferred realizing what that first tee shot goes to do.”
TPC Sawgrass slaughtered numerous gamers throughout the third and last rounds on Saturday and Sunday. Winds blew past 30 miles per hour, irritating gamers and sending them into agony and disbelief. Golf equipment have been thrown, and cuss phrases have been dropped.
That additionally occurred final yr at Augusta Nationwide, the place, regardless of how exhausting the wind blows, gusts come and go as they please. The winds round Amen Nook assist make it so treacherous and so deceiving. Comparable sentiments might be mentioned concerning the breeze that whirls across the fifteenth and sixteenth greens in addition to on the 2nd and seventh. It’s essential to management your ball flight at Augusta. Maybe extra so than anyplace else on the planet. Discovering the low elements of the inexperienced is essential whereas lacking the fallacious spots proves detrimental and devastating. A change in wind path mid-flight can flip a promising shot right into a expensive one.
McIlroy is aware of that.
Which is why he must deliver this successful weapon to The Masters.
“I mentioned to [my caddy] Harry [Diamond] there, that [three-quarter] shot goes to take us a great distance,” McIlroy added.
“I’ve turn into actually snug with that shot, so even in circumstances like this, I really feel like I’ve acquired every part just about underneath management, which is a very nice feeling.”
Eventually yr’s Masters, McIlroy tied for twenty second. A 5-over 77 throughout Friday’s blustery second spherical stored him from contending, as he in the end completed 15 photographs behind Scottie Scheffler.
“I feel again to the second spherical at Augusta final yr; it was so gusty. I possibly didn’t have all of the photographs required to exit and shoot one thing underneath par that day,” McIlroy mentioned.
“When the circumstances come like that, I simply really feel like I’m rather a lot higher ready to deal with them, particularly because it’s all the time been okay off the tee, nevertheless it’s combating the type of wedges and quick irons, which have been the problem, and I really feel like I’ve been capable of rectify that.”
McIlroy has lengthy been thought to be probably the greatest drivers of the golf ball the sport has ever seen. Look no additional than how he opened Monday’s playoff: he hit a tantalizing 3-yard draw that cut up the sixteenth fairway and topped out at 339 yards. On a cold, windy day, that’s unprecedented.
However now he has his quick irons and wedges underneath management, which, just like the seventeenth, he demonstrated once more on the sixteenth. From that spot in the course of the golf green, he hit a flighted wedge into the center of the inexperienced. His ball landed 30 toes left of the pin, which sat dangerously near the water’s edge. He then two-putted for birdie.
Then, on the 18th, needing a bogey-five to win the championship, McIlroy hit a three-quarter 8-iron, which, like his earlier two strikes with this ball flight, proved profitable.
“It’s a shot that I’ve all the time had with the wedges, however I’ve been reluctant to make use of it with 9-iron, 8-iron, 7-iron down. However this yr, I’ve gotten extra into utilizing that shot with a few of these decrease golf equipment just like the 9-iron on 17, the 8-iron on the final right this moment,” McIlroy mentioned.
“That’s extra a shot that I’ve all the time actually had. However I’ve simply began to get extra snug utilizing it with longer golf equipment.”
He was on his recreation together with his iron play all week, rating fifth within the subject in strokes gained strategy. And a giant motive for that’s this go-to three-quarter shot.
Now he must deliver it to Augusta, and if he can efficiently make use of it throughout The Masters, the speak of McIlroy failing to win the Grand Slam will lastly come to a joyous finish.
Jack Milko is a golf workers author for SB Nation’s Taking part in Via. Comply with him on X @jack_milko.
