Rory McIlroy made a move up the leaderboard on Sunday, but in the end, it was nowhere near enough. He finished five strokes behind winner Min Woo Lee, who won his first PGA Tour title at the Texas Children’s Houston Open.
Rory McIlroy bothered by elbow injury, tweaked driver ahead of Augusta
Rory McIlroy revealed that he is dealing with an injury after the final round of the Texas Children’s Houston Open.
Photo by Kenneth Richmond/Getty Images
Jack Milko has been playing golf since he was five years old. He has yet to record a hole-in-one, but he did secure an M.A. in Sports Journalism from St. Bonaventure University.
But the biggest development of McIlroy’s first start at Memorial Park came after his final round concluded.
He told Kira K. Dixon of the Golf Channel that his right elbow was bothering him.
“Get some treatment on that,” McIlroy said.
“[Got to] make sure that that’s OK going into Augusta.”
The final round of The Masters will wrap up two weeks from today. Considering that McIlroy has won two events already this season — on two iconic courses in Pebble Beach and TPC Sawgrass no less — he will arrive in Georgia as one of the favorites alongside defending champion Scottie Scheffler.
McIlroy’s elbow may cause some concern, and perhaps it helps explain some of the issues he has had off the tee. Even then, McIlroy does not seem too fazed by it. He will put in a solid week of work at home in Jupiter, Florida, before flying north to Augusta National.
“Still feel like I’ve got some stuff to work on,” McIlroy added.
“Still don’t think like my game is absolutely 100 percent under the control I would want, but it’s nice to have a week to work on some things. I’ve got my coach, Michael Bannon, coming in tomorrow, so we’ll be working at home and making sure game feels good going into the Masters.”
McIlroy then expanded upon what he needs to practice this week.
“It’s just about feeling as comfortable as I can be with the things I’ve been working on, which is sort of iron play, wedges,” McIlroy said.
“Obviously short game’s really, really important around Augusta as well. You know, work on those things over the next few days and hopefully I’m feeling good going in there.”
Interestingly, after finding only 21 of 39 fairways over the first three days in Houston, McIlroy decided to tweak his driver ahead of the final round.
“I just took a little bit of loft off it,” McIlroy said.
“So I felt like it was getting a little bit spinny, especially if I wanted to hit cuts off the tee, so I took a little bit of loft off it. Yeah, definitely went through the wind better today and felt a little more comfortable.”
The move to do so paid off. McIlroy hit 8-of-13 fairways on Sunday and ranked second among the field in strokes gained off the tee. He posted a 6-under 64, his best round of the championship.
“It was a solid week. I definitely got better today, which was great to see,” McIlroy said.
“I made a little tweak to my driver yesterday on the range after I played. That worked out pretty well. Yeah, no, it was a pretty decent score. A little disappointing with how I finished, but overall, pretty happy with how the week went.”
It’s worth noting that McIlroy did not reference his elbow injury in his post-round interview with reporters and only did so on television. Perhaps it’s something monitor. Perhaps it’s only a minor inconvenience. Time will tell. But whatever the case, McIlroy will head to Augusta with as good a shot as ever to complete the career Grand Slam.
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Follow him on X @jack_milko.
