Rory McIlroy in trouble at Oakmont for U.S. Open barring driving improvement | Golf Channel Podcast

Rory McIlroy’s driver is of paramount importance to his game, so Rex & Lav agree he’s in massive trouble at Oakmont for the U.S. Open if he can’t recover from a “complete disaster off the tee” in the RBC Canadian Open. #GolfChannel #Golf #USOpen #RoryMcIlroy
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Rory McIlroy in trouble at Oakmont for U.S. Open barring driving improvement | Golf Channel Podcast
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player we did not see i mean this was one of the worst tournaments of his entire career was Roy Moy actually finished nearly finished last beat just four players through 36 holes shot 78 in the second round that was his worst score in a non- major in about four years what’s up with Rory well I think the driver is the easiest thing to say and and I’ll say this it it is shocking to me that less than a month ago probably I mean you’re going to call me on the timing on this one but you and I were probably having the same breathless conversation that everyone else was in the golf media about man how many majors can he win now Rory unburdened yes unburdened like the weight’s been lifted just imagine what he’s going to be able to do now now that he’s free and he can go out and enjoy himself and he doesn’t have all this pressure on him you and I both know that the strength of Rory’s game everything flows from his ability to drive the ball better than anyone else and when he’s on he’s really really tough to beat and you end up with the player that won the Masters and the player that’s won three times this year and a signature event the players championship and everything that went into it but very rarely do you see when he’s playing bad that bad and I if this is the driver and again he addressed it a little bit last week but I think there’s still probably some questions lingering about if the driver that was deemed non-conforming at Quail Hollow was the one you were so comfortable with and was the one you were able to do those unbelievable things it’s a testament to how difficult it is to actually find the perfect driver that somehow he can’t do it and hasn’t been able to do it because really everything you saw in Canada and everything you saw at at at uh at at Coil Hollow during the PGA everything I would say they saw at Zer Classic i mean they played decent but that was more Shane Lowry than it was Roy Maroy that that was all based on the driver and if he’s not comfortable now going into Oakmont I don’t know how he gets there yeah I don’t I legit I legitimately do not know if we talked about this on Wednesday as it relates to Roy Mcro but he did have a different driver in the bag so obviously his gamer the one that he had used for a year the one that he was playing you know some of the best golf of his career at the early part of 2025 the the driver with which he finally completed the final leg of the career Grand Slam that was the one that was deemed non-conforming that was the tailor made QI10 well once it got deemed non-conforming he put his backup in play did not drive it particularly well off the tea at Coil Hollow regardless of which driver that he was using in those interim weeks between the PJ Championship and where he showed up at the RBC Canadian Open he did some more head-to-head at home testing and put in a new driver head the Qi35 which is Taylor Maid’s newest model that driver head if you recall is the one that he briefly experimented with at the Arnold Palmer Invitational remember that over the first 54 holes drove it poorly ended up swapping out for the final round and then went on a pretty epic tear won the players championship and won the Masters as well it’s clear there is still some testing that needs to be done because not only was it a different driver head he also experimented uh with shortening the driver shaft in theory be trying to be trying to put the ball in play more often certainly with an eye on the US Open and understanding how important find the fairways is going to be for the year’s third major it it was just a it was a complete disaster off the t less than 50% of the fairways at TPC Toronto it admitted as much in interview with reporters afterward in Canada like yeah I’ I’ve got two or three days at home and early week at Oakmont where I need to find something because if you’re not finding fairways at Oakmont it is going to be an almighty struggle one thing that I do know that we discussed uh on Wednesday was sort of the motivation factor and Roy admitting himself that you know it’s it’s really tough for me at this point after having this this lifealtering moment to grind on the range for 2 three four hours i I’m I’m assuming this was a wakeup call for him that he needed to do just that but the US Open is going to be a test of patience it’s going to be a test of guts it’s going to be a test of tenacity and perseverance for as much as Roy Moyy’s skill over the past couple really over the past couple of decades has been distilled into like this awesome tanalyzing power and these birdie binges and and so much excitement and thrills his US Open record Rex is is phenomenal every year since 2019 he has finished inside the top 10 he continues to get better obviously had the close call a year ago at Pinehurst followed up with that at LACC as well so like he understands how to play down and dirty golf and gritty golf does he currently have the game that’s going to allow him to do that based on what we saw at the PGA based on what we saw at Canada I I have a hard time imagining that he’s going to be keeping this top 10 streak alive even after Quail if you would have asked me would Rory be one of the favorites going into Oakmont the answer would have been absolutely yes like Scotty is clearly in a category by himself but Rory’s going to be was going to be close behind him i’m not quite sure he’s on that list or at least the short list whatever it is we’ll do on Wednesday night as far as top five maybe go simply because of the way he’s driven the ball the last few events and that’s the one thing you absolutely can’t do at Oakmont by every every measure it’s going to be one of the most difficult driving tests that we’ve seen at the national championship in a long time to the point that I’m a little concerned and I’m sure we’re going to talk about this more next week about you always fall back on they’re trying to identify the best golfer in the moment that this I think has the danger of embarrassing the best golfers because of not just how thick and long the rough is by all accounts but also they’re talking about green speeds in the 14 and 14 and a half on the step meter that to me is just ridiculous with five inch rough oh yes there’s the there’s the agent of chaos that loves every minute of that Yes