You could hardly blame Rory McIlroy for opting to take a day off, to do nothing – golf wise – and to learn how to forget what unfolded over the weekend of the Arnold Palmer Invitational to go from headline act to bit character.
With a reference to feeling "punch drunk" and calling what unfolded at Bay Hill akin to "crazy golf", McIlroy admitted he needed some time to himself. "I just need a day off to forget about what's happened, then just sort of focus on [The Players].
The Players may not be a Major championship but it nevertheless has a weight of its own, not least the fact that the prizefund has swollen to €18 million ($20 million) making it the biggest tournament financially on tour.
On the difficult set-up that players experienced at Bay Hill, where run-off areas now feature heavy rough to accentuate the examination, McIlroy claimed “they need to do something about it. There’s a lot of guys [who] stay away to get ready for [The Players] . . . [it has] become such a big event, $20 million purse. The four Majors are sacred in this game but it’s very close to being among them with the way it is going.
“It’s just a golf course set-up issue and maybe just trying to make it a little less penal when you miss, I guess. Or not even less penal when you miss. . I think that’s where it starts to get across the line.”
McIlroy’s fall from being first-round leader to eventually finish in tied-13th (alongside Graeme McDowell) was dramatic for all the wrong reasons but the Northern Irishman’s frustration afterwards was tempered by a belief that his game wasn’t in as bad a place as the scores over the weekend – back-to-back 76s – indicated.
“I’m playing good. I’m hitting good shots. I’m swinging the club well. I’m chipping well. I’m putting well. But it can knock your confidence whenever the conditions are like this. I’m certainly playing better than shooting eight over over the weekend. it’s just a matter of trying to regroup and forget, [Sawgrass] is going to be a completely different test.”
The weather forecast for the Jacksonville area for the week ahead features the prospect of heavy rainfall, which will add a different type of challenge for those seeking to lay claim to the PGA Tour’s flagship tournament title.
McIlroy, of course, will be in the stellar field at TPC Sawgrass in his quest for a second title (he won in 2019), while Shane Lowry – after making the decision to skip Bay Hill – and Séamus Power, who missed the cut in the API, are also competing.
Power – who has missed his last three cuts (Phoenix, Genesis and API), a fate that hasn't befallen him in over 12 months – fell to 50th place in the updated world rankings and needs to stay inside that magic number in three weeks' time if he is to earn an invitation to the US Masters at Augusta National. The Waterford man, at least, has some big tournaments to consolidate: apart from the Players, he is set to make his debut in the WGC-Dell Technologies Matchplay.
Lowry, runner-up in the Honda Classic on his last appearance, returns to tournament duty for a run up to the Masters that will see him play the Players, then skip the Valspar and the Valero Texas Open ahead of the season's first Major for men.
Bryson DeChambeau, who hasn’t played since withdrawing with a wrist injury from last month’s Saudi International, and who had originally entered the championship, is an absentee, with his place in the field going to Hayden Buckley.
On the DP World Tour, the MyGolfLife Open at Pecanwood in South Africa has just one Irish player – Jonathan Caldwell – in the field.
Leona Maguire competes in the Honda LPGA Thailand tournament, the second of back-to-back weeks in Asia. Maguire finished 13th in the HSBC Women's World Championship in Singapore, where world number one Jin Young Ko won in her first start of the season.
