Paying the price for being Rory McIlroy… can he battle out of his slump to end his major drought?

As the crow flies, it’s about 100 miles from Niagara Falls to Oak Hill Country Club, where the US PGA Championship will take place in the coming days.

If we want to use that as a route to easy symbolism, the temptation might be to ask which drop is sharper: the drop over the edge of the old waterfall, or the one in the form of Rory McIlroy in the past 10 to soften?

This is a strange era for golf and an unknown time for a man who more than rightly claims to be his best player in his day. Sadly, those weren’t enough in March, April and early May, apart from his run-up to the WGC MatchPlay semi-finals six weeks ago.

Indeed, it seems hard to believe that he’s missed the cut at The Masters and The Players Championship in his last three stroke play events, with his weekend entry to the Wells Fargo at Quail Hollow last weekend only possible because he survived the cull by a single lead . shot.

Since this is McIlroy, it’s safe to assume that the funk will be over much sooner rather than later.

McIlroy has missed cuts to The Masters and The Players’ Championship in his last three stroke play events

There are question marks hanging over his head as to whether his often one-man action against LIV has hurt him in the long run

“It’s a blip and nothing more,” said former European Ryder Cup captain Sam Torrance Mail sports this week. The most reasonable judgment would prove him right.

But nevertheless, there is a semi-urgent question about which version of the world No. 3 will be present at the second major of the year in Rochester, New York State.

Four days out, that’s hard to answer given that McIlroy’s public comments have been so limited since he left Augusta without speaking to media, social media or otherwise, and did the same after his disappointing tie for 47th at Quail Hollow.

In between, he said enough about Augusta’s emotional toil and the wider effort of coordinating the PGA Tour’s response to LIV that it seemed like he succumbed to exhaustion at just the wrong time. The candle burned at both ends for the better part of 12 months and it’s a shame McIlroy scorched just as the majors came in.

“He’s been involved in a lot of things outside of the course, and he’s done a great job with that,” Torrance added.

“What we saw with Augusta must have been a big blow to him. With the amount of preparation he must have done and how well he played, it must have hurt a lot that the week went the way it did.

“But these guys are of a different race. He took a moment to switch off and it really wouldn’t be a surprise if he has a great week at Oak Hill. Not at all.’

It should be remembered that some of McIlroy’s best golf courses in years have been played during this Civil War period – three wins on the PGA Tour, another on the European circuit and the season-ending No. 1 on both. That in addition to outstanding finishes of second, eighth, fifth and third at the 2022 majors.

His battle for the soul of golf was admired by many inside and outside the game, but he could have suffered a burnout

No one didn’t enjoy the sniping that took place between McIlroy and nemesis Patrick Reed

There were times during the run when he seemed energized by a mission beyond hitting balls – lashing out at Greg Norman seemed almost as much fun, and there was no denying that he was thriving.

Within all of that, of course, there was some media complicity – the more he cared about LIV, the more we asked the LIV questions, and always the answers were fascinating, spanning some particularly memorable press conferences at individual tournaments in Dubai. During one, he said peace could not be made until Norman left and allowed an “adult in the room.” In the other, he willingly gave the background to his tee-gate feud with LIV rebel Patrick Reed, including the details of a Christmas Eve subpoena. Not many honest journalists would say we’d rather have heard about the chips and putts.

As a golfer and talker, McIlroy has proven himself to be a figure with few equals, but there are those who argue that his game would have benefited from fewer injections of heart and impulse. On a similar theme, there are many who believe that PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan could have saved the Northern Irishman some of the burden by being more visible in this day and age.

As he admits, McIlroy now pays for his political contributions, so it’s only up to him to know if the extracurricular activities have been worth it on balance. For all he’s gained financially from the Tour restructuring, and by extension the whole LIV feud, it’s tempting to think back to a player advisory committee meeting McIlroy attended prior to the Arnold Palmer Invitational in early March. It took seven hours. McIlroy was second that week, but the road to burnout can be short with so many commitments.

As always, discussions around McIlroy will be shaped by his wider pursuit of major titles and he will forever be remembered as it has been nine years since his fourth and most recent success.

Likewise, he will know that the peak statistical age for golfers to win a major is 32 and he is now 34. That is six years older than Jon Rahm and eight older than Scottie Scheffler, the two other kings in the game of golf today.

There’s no question that McIlroy – a big talker – did a good job hitting Greg Norman (R).

McIlroy has admitted that he is now paying for his political contributions – only he will know if it has been worth it

Using age against McIlroy feels like terribly flawed logic given his form from last April. But one wonders about his buildup of scar tissue, and in a more direct sense, his current dip is striking. That is especially evident in his whimsy off the tee, where he hit just 20 of 56 fairways in Quail Hollow all week.

Worryingly, there doesn’t seem to be a consistent miss either – as with Augusta, some pull to the left and others block to the right, so the tweaked driver after the Players Championship hasn’t proven to be the complete solution. It is also notable that after recently switching to a Scotty Cameron blade putter, he then returned to a mallet style with no apparent success at the Wells Fargo.

If there’s any encouragement, it’s that McIlroy is a member of Oak Hill and considers the area a second home, as his wife is from Rochester. The layout is familiar to him and is expected to be beneficial, thanks to the 2019 redesign that extended the track to 7,400 meters and removed hundreds of trees.

Even with more roughness in that area at this time of year, the layout is perhaps friendlier to a bomber like McIlroy than in previous years. Writing him off would be a mistake, but talking him out involves more risks than usual.