Rory McIlroy’s ‘Full Swing’ admission: I don’t feel the same player who won four Majors by age 25
Rory McIlroy’s admission that he doesn’t feel like the same player who won four Majors before the age of 25 is just one of the fascinating stories in the new season of Full Swing, which was released in the UK on Wednesday.
The second season of the fly-on-the-wall Netflix series focuses on the shock June 6 merger announcement between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, the battle for the Majors and that controversial Ryder Cup in Rome.
The LIV Golf narrative is front and centre throughout, but the little snatches of locker room conversation between McIlroy and his team at events like the US PGA stick out.
While there are entertaining episodes on Alex Fitzpatrick’s efforts to step out of the shadow of his brother Matt, the struggles of series one star Joel Dahmen to live up to his new-found fame, Rickie Fowler’s battle to regain form, Tom Kim’s efforts to justify his celebrity with big performances and Justin Thomas’ Ryder Cup wildcard bid, it’s McIlroy’s battle to end his near 10-year Major drought that might resonate more strongly with Irish audiences.
“I know that clock is ticking,” the Holywood star says at the start. “I was able to knock off four Major Championships pretty quickly in my career, but I’ve been stuck on four for a while.
“I don’t deserve and no one deserves anything in this game. Like nothing is handed to you. It’s all earned and I feel ready to earn it again.”
Of course, it all started badly when he missed the cut in The Masters — “I laid an egg, I played like dog-s**t”, he confessed, admitting he has to ask himself questions about what he was doing off the course in the PGA Tour’s battle with LIV Golf.
While he was seventh in the PGA, second in the US Open and sixth in The Open, he walked away empty-handed and only got some sort of redemption in Rome.
Losing out in the PGA Championship at Oak Hill, where his big rival Brooks Koepka overtook him with five Major wins, was a serious blow.
“It’s a spiral,” he said of what it feels like to try and win Majors. “When you’ve momentum and things are going your way, the spiral works upwards. But if you get an unlucky break, you hit a shot you thought was going to be good and it didn’t end up good, it just starts going the other way a little bit.”
Walking into the locker room with his manager, Sean O’Flaherty, after the PGA loss, he said: “It’s not that Sean, I f*****g s**t myself to left pins, my technique is nowhere near as good as it used to be…”
Later, as caddie Harry Diamond looks on, McIlroy vents his frustrations.
“I almost feel like I want to do a complete re-boot because it’s the only way I feel like I am going to break through,” he said.
“Like it feels so far away. I am not at a stage in my life where I feel I can come out and do these two-week boot camps. I feel good enough to be f*****g top-10 in my head but not good enough to win.”
“Like pull away?” Diamond suggests, likely recalling how he won the 2011 US Open and the 2012 PGA by eight strokes.
McIlroy confirms that’s what he means.
As the coverage cuts to Koepka lifting the Wanamaker Trophy and McIlroy packing up, then congratulating the triumphant American as he heads for his car, he adds: “F**k, someone in my era has got more Majors than I have. It’s hard for me not to define myself as one of the best golfers in the world, so when you struggle like that, you feel a little lost.
“But I think it was a wake-up call for me to say, ‘Let’s just focus on the golf a little bit’.”
The series is a must-watch for golf fans and great entertainment for non-golfers who will likely find the narratives around Fowler, the Fitzpatricks, Kim, Koepka and Dustin Johnson as fascinating as the thoughts of their wives and girlfriends.
All in all, a slick, well-produced product that can only increase interest in golf and the on-going LIV Golf narrative surrounding a sport that has been torn asunder by division but one which can count on the majors and the Ryder Cup to provide the kind of drama that makes for great TV.
