Rory McIlroy hit a perfect shot as Johnny Miller was scolding him for working out too much

Well, that didn’t take long.

Johnny Miller, making his 2018 season debut Saturday on NBC’s golf coverage, invited ire and ridicule when he trotted out his tired anti-workout rant during Rory McIlroy’s third round at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

“This is probably a controversial comment, but I think if he had never gone to a gym he would have played way better the last five years,” Miller, as if reading from a script from 2016, said as McIlroy prepared to hit his approach shot to the par-4 18th hole at Bay Hill. “Because he was so good. I mean he was phenomenal and now he’s gotten so ripped that I’m not sure in golf you need to be ripped.

“He is leading this week in driving distance,” Miller added after McIlroy had striped one 305 yards down the middle of the fairway at the last, “but maybe you give up a little something around the greens.”

Then McIlroy stiffed it to within two feet and calmly rolled his ball into the cup for a birdie to get to 10-under for the week, two shots back of leader Henrik Stenson.

As the fans lining the 18th green went crazy, Twitterers watching from home let Miller have it.

There’s no question McIlroy struggled in the four PGA Tour events he started this year before Arnie’s tourney (missed cut at Pebble Beach, T20 at Riviera, T59 at the Honda, and MC at the Valspar). But in the last five years, though he has not won an event since 2016, McIlroy has three wins in 2014 (including two majors), and two each in 2015 and 2016 (when he also won the entire FedExCup).

The world’s No. 13 also seems to have turned things around this week in Orlando, as he was ninth in scrambling and tied for third in putts per green and second in strokes gained putting (the last two stats, no doubt, thanks to McIlroy’s recent work with flat stick guru Brad Faxon).

So, yeah, good call, Johnny. And welcome back.