Rory McIlroy admits he’s got into ‘bad habits’ with his golf swing after spending hours on the range
· Yahoo Sports
Rory McIlroy has admitted that he has been so focused on the outcome of his shots that he has got into some bad habits with his golf swing in recent months.
Visit biznow.biz for more information.
It has been a somewhat strange season for McIlroy. He made history by becoming only the fourth player to retain The Masters title back in April.
It appeared to be a sign of what may be to come for McIlroy, as rather than play in PGA Tour events in the weeks before the first major of the year, he instead decided to do most of his practice at Augusta National itself.
However, playing a limited schedule has not reaped many more rewards. McIlroy has not registered a top 10 finish Stateside since the PGA Championship in May.
Rory McIlroy assesses the current state of his golf swing
He finished eight over par and in 66th place at the FedEx St. Jude Championship this past week. McIlroy admitted afterwards that he felt lost with his swing as the tournament went on.
It appears that the 37-year-old is expecting to have plenty of work to do during the off-season. But ahead of the BMW Championship, he suggested that he is optimistic that he has made a breakthrough.
“Yeah, I’ve definitely gotten into some bad habits in my golf swing over the past few months. Yeah, as you play tournament golf, the golf swing takes a back seat and all you’re really trying to do is hit shots and be visual and be instinctive. But as you do that you can start to revert back into some bad habits. And I’ve certainly done that this year,” he said.
Photo by James Gilbert/PGA TOUR via Getty Images“I took some time off at the end of 2024 to work on my golf swing, and I came out early in 2025 and I played really, really well. I won three events pretty early in the season. I feel like that was down to the work that I did at the end of 2024. And I feel like I have to do some of that work again. So it’s a bit of a work in progress. But I spent the day at home in Florida on Monday, worked with my coach Michael and Harry, and I feel like we’re heading into the right direction. But, yeah, I have this feeling in my golf swing that I just need to engrain, and I just need to hit a ton of balls while doing it. Whether it be with the head cover under my right arm or I’ve made a couple of clubs up with like different grips to try to feel like where my hands should be halfway back. So I just have to hit a ton of balls to try to get that engrained.
“That’s what’s hard. It’s hard to do that for three hours on the range and then try to go on the golf course and play like that as well. So I think the more reps I can get on the range the more comfortable it will end up becoming when I get out on the course.”
McIlroy explains why he uses a putting grip as a training aid
For most of us mere mortals, it is hard to imagine Rory McIlroy seeing anything wrong at all with his golf swing.
Throughout his career, it has been flawless to the naked eye. McIlroy’s swing is surely the envy of the majority of his peers.
But he is prepared to try different things to give him the correct feelings. And he went into further detail about how a bulky putter grip is among the training aids he uses.
“So you know that Flat Cat putter grip? So you basically put that on a club at a 45-degree angle. So, like halfway back your right hand sits on the flat part of the grip, like on top, like where you would sort of want your grip to be, like where you want your right hand. I want my right hand on top of the club halfway back. So the Flat Cat just gives you that feeling of where it needs to be,” he said.
McIlroy had the freedom to try one or two things in Memphis last week. Despite a horrendous time, he still only dropped one place in the FedEx Cup standings.
He will be in the field for the Tour Championship at East Lake regardless of how he performs this week at the BMW Championship.
So he can experiment with his swing. And if something clicks by the time he gets to Atlanta, he has a real opportunity to end the PGA Tour on a real high.