Rory McIlroy has instructed caddie Harry Diamond to make a subtle change to his tee shot approach.
McIlroy’s driving has always been one of his most deadly weapons but this season the 34-year-old has taken it to a whole new level.
His 316-yard driving average is the second best on the Tour, while also scoring high with accuracy, hitting 67.62 percent of his fairways.
Off the tee, no other player gains more than McIlroy’s incredible 1.251 strokes on the field.
“I have this amazing feeling with my woods at the minute,” McIlroy told reporters on Wednesday at the Players Championship. “I love this feeling of firing my right arm down the target line, and I can do that with my woods really well.”
That was evident at Bay Hill last weekend when the Northern Irishman became the first player in Arnold Palmer Invitational history to drive the green at the par-four 10th.
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A mix of muscle and flexibility coupled with a 9-degree TaylorMade Qi10 LS driver and a move to a longer tee, helped make light-work of the 400-yard par-4 10th hole.
Brandel Chamblee let slip of McIlroy’s secret ingredient during the Golf Channel’s Players coverage on Wednesday, revealing that McIlroy told him caddie Diamond had ousted the golfer’s bag of long tees to help him find more fairways.
“He’s given one long tee to Harry Diamond, and he said, ‘Only allow me to use the long tee one time a day,’” Chamblee explained. “So for the rest of the day he’s trying to hit these cover little fades or cover draws.”
Golfers tend to tee the ball higher when they want more distance but this can come at the expense of accuracy.
McIlroy will employ the same tee tactics this week at TPC Sawgrass, Chamblee continued.
“The one place where he’s going to go long this week where Harry Diamond’s going to let him use the tee, is the 16th hole,” Chamblee said. “He’s taking it up over the trees.”
McIlroy faced the par-5 16th on Thursday morning, confident of avoiding a repeat of last year when he twice missed the fairway right on his way to a missed cut.
However, this time it was different, as after birdieing four of his first six holes in the first round, McIlroy arrived on 16 and whilst his drive drifted right of his aim line, it rolled out into the first cut on the right side of the fairway for 336 yards before registering a birdie 4.
He would finish tied for the lead on seven-under, despite a couple of controversial drops which overshadowed his opening round on Thursday.
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News Summary:
- Rory McIlroy agrees with caddie to make subtle change only once per round
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