Rory McIlroy, who if he believed the hype would only need to turn up here this week to win the US PGA Championship, revealed last night that in the past eight weeks alone he has packed on three kilos of muscle that has helped make him the talk of the golfing world.
“I’m definitely hitting it longer over the past couple of years,” he said yesterday. “I’ve started to work harder in the gym and got stronger in certain areas of my body, which I needed to. I’ve always had the speed and the power but not the strength or stability to hold on to it my whole way through the swing.
“I’m the heaviest I’ve ever been. But does that mean I want to get heavier and try to put on more distance? I don’t feel like I need to.
“I don’t feel I need to put on any more distance. I can hit it over 300 yards. That gives me plenty of opportunities to hit it close to the flags and try to make birdies. It’s the best I’ve ever driven the ball.”
The stats support his testimony. McIlroy led the driving statistics in Akron last week where he won the Bridgestone Invitational with an average wallop of 334.1 yards. Any more than that and you start to run out of fairway.
While the technical side of his game is impressive it is the management of the attendant hoopla that’s making the difference.
Evidence of McIlroy’s growing status as the game’s poster boy could be seen yesterday when his media conference was hijacked by the PGA to announce an extended sponsorship deal with a Swiss watch maker and adopted a James Bond pose in a picture shoot.
McIlroy, positioned betwixt the head of PGA and the chief executive of Omega, looked more than comfortable in the seat once occupied by golf’s outgoing USP Tiger Woods. Well, McIlroy is shooting for his fourth major at the age of 25, and his third victory on the spin after adding Bridgestone last Sunday to the Open crown claimed last month.
Golf’s powerbrokers cannot get enough of the next big thing, which notionally at least, ups the ante ahead of the final major of the season. Not that you would know it judging by McIlroy’s sanguine demeanour.
Locked into this virtuous cycle of near perfect golf, where every ball he hits does as he bids, and flies a long way with it, McIlroy simply sits back and lets the tributes wash over him. He lets others do the talking while he concentrates on nothing more than the next shot, and how that formula is working.
McIlroy has always had plenty of game. Now he has the mind to manage the expectation, leading some to suggest we are entering the ‘Rory era’. His return to the top of the world rankings this week supports the claims but wisely he stands back from that, or rather, resists the temptation to fan that flame.
“I don’t really know how to answer that,” McIlroy said. “Of course I’ve heard it and I’ve read it.
“Sometimes I feel that people are too quick to jump to conclusions and jump on the bandwagon and jump on certain things.
“I’ve had a great run of golf and played well over the past few months. I said at the start of the year that golf was looking for someone to put their hand up and sort of become one of the dominant players in the game. I felt like I had the ability to do that.
“It’s just nice to be able to win a few tournaments and get back to where I feel like I should be, which is near the top of the world rankings, competing in majors and winning golf tournaments.
“I’m not necessarily sure you can call that an era or the start of an era, but I’m just really happy with where my golf game is at the minute and I just want to try and continue that for as long as possible.
“People can say what they want to say, that’s fine. But I can’t read too much into it.
"I just need to continue to practise hard and play well and try not to read too much of the stuff that’s being written, because if you read everything, I’d turn up at the first tee on Thursday thinking I’d already won the tournament.”
The whispers around Valhalla say he’s a shoo-in, which is reflected by the fact that he is the overwhelming favourite in a 156-horse race.
McIlroy is so confident he took the day off Monday rather than familiarise himself with a course he has never played. It’s long, green and in US. That’s all he needs to know.
“I don’t know much about the course but from the people that have spoken to me and guys in the locker room it will suit my game pretty well,” McIlroy said.
“I know it’s going to be a long drive course. I feel like I’ve driven the ball very well the last few weeks. If I do that, hopefully I’ll have a good chance.”
10 out of 10 for understatement, Rory.
