It is one of the more surprising facts from Rory McIlroy’s career that the Memorial Tournament is the one PGA Tour event he has played at least 10 times without ever winning.
McIlroy has now done virtually everything in the game. He has won six major championships, completed the Career Grand Slam, and won the Ryder Cup on numerous occasions.
But he goes into this week at Muirfield Village still awaiting the opportunity to shake Jack Nicklaus’ hand as the champion of his event.
Why Rory McIlroy has never been able to win the Memorial Tournament
Rory McIlroy has played the Memorial Tournament 13 times across his career. Along the way, he has registered two top five finishes, while he has also missed the cut on two occasions.
It seems very surprising that McIlroy has not yet won the event. The golf course appears to be such a good fit for the Northern Irishman when you consider how important good driving tends to be.
But perhaps there is a reasonable explanation for why McIlroy has not had a top five finish at the event in a decade now.
Speaking on the Golf Channel Podcast, Rex Hoggard suggested that McIlroy is rarely looking to peak at this stage of the season.
“If I showed you statistically what you had to do at Muirfield Village, you would probably point to, if not first, then at least second, Rory McIlroy as, oh yeah, well, of course, he would play that golf course particularly well. He hasn’t historically played it as well as some other places, Quail Hollow immediately comes to mind. And there’s probably a lot of reasons for that,” he said.
“I think his schedule probably factors into this as well. As you pointed out, he has these built in sort of vacations. He has these built-in sort of off seasons, I guess is a better way of saying it, that going into The Masters, I think he invests so much of himself.
“He usually starts his year on the European Tour. He’s really vested to making sure his game is absolutely where he wants it when he gets to Augusta National. And it seems as if the rest of the year is just trying to make sure everything else maintains.
“I would argue that maybe The Open Championship, he sort of beds in a little bit more, goes to the Scottish Open, that seems to be traditionally, where he tries to do that. The U.S. Open is a little bit different because this is usually with an eye ahead, right? Usually you’re looking toward whatever the U.S. Open test is going to be.
“Now, I’m sure, just like every other player, and Rory McIlroy was 100 per cent that person, his friendship, his affinity for Jack Nicklaus, is pretty clear, he would love to win that event, but I think it’s understandable that given where it is in the season that maybe he doesn’t have his best stuff with an eye towards two weeks from now.”
Rory McIlroy attempted to explain his failure to win at Muirfield Village
Muirfield Village provides one of the most thorough tests on the PGA Tour. The best winning score across all of the last six stagings of the event is 13 under par.
McIlroy has also broken 70 in just two of his last 22 rounds around Muirfield Village.
When asked on Wednesday about why he thinks he has not been able to win the event so far in his career, McIlroy suggested that he has not been able to utilise his driver as well as he would have liked.
“Yeah, for being such a long golf course I feel like it takes driver out of my hand a lot, which, you know, I pride myself on that being one of my biggest weapons. The fairways pinch in right around the spots where I would be finishing driver. So it’s frustrated me in a way that I feel like my biggest weapon is in some way neutralised here,” he said.
“And then I have to play the golf course like most of the other guys in the field, everyone plays from the same spots. It’s more that there’s bunkers that I think I can carry that I could get an advantage, but there’s really no advantage to it because, obviously, the rough here is so penal, and then angles into greens. And so it’s just about me being a little more disciplined and not being so aggressive with my strategy.”
McIlroy’s results at The Masters in each of the last two years shows that he has a formula that often works when the event really matters to him.
It would be a real shame if he ended his career without a victory at the Memorial. The good news is McIlroy is likely to give himself plenty of opportunities over the next few years.
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