Rory McIlroy's Potential for Improvement in 2026 Season

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00:00I actually think Rory has room for improvement in 2025.

00:03This wasn't a maxed-out Rory McIlroy.

00:05I think when you look at completing the Grand Slam

00:07and having a good start to the season,

00:09you think, wow, Rory McIlroy,

00:11of course he's going to have a down year

00:13after playing so well the year prior.

00:15I actually think he can improve on this past season.

00:18I thought he drove it better in 24.

00:20Now, 25, he kind of got in the middle of the season,

00:23driving it a little funky.

00:24Iron Game got a little off,

00:26which at times he tends to do,

00:27tends to get a little bit, it always appears

00:30that he gets underneath it

00:31and he's kind of fighting either an overturn with his irons.

00:34But really the range just that I looked at from his Iron Game

00:39that I thought could use a bit of improvement,

00:41the range in which he hits the most shots

00:44in that 25-yard gap,

00:45the PGA Tour always kind of splits it up

00:47with like 100 to 125, 125, 150.

00:50The most shots that he had hit versus any other

00:52was 150 to 175.

00:55And he was 143rd in that category.

00:57So that's an area in which, you know,

01:00you're hitting a lot of 9, 8, 7s.

01:03And 143rd is definitely well below Tour average

01:07in an area in which he can improve.

01:10And he obviously plays from that spot often,

01:13whether it's par threes

01:14or probably for him par fives in his second shot.

01:18But I mean, his driver sets up his entire game, Charlie.

01:22Everybody knows it,

01:24but when you really dive into the data,

01:25as long as he is at the top of the driving distance,

01:29that he's going to remain competitive

01:32because of how good of a driver of the golf ball he is.

01:36Now, these are all nitpicky things I'm kind of mentioning.

01:38Like, I'm finding like certain parts of his game

01:41that he can go work on.

01:42But really, it's his driver.

01:44That's unbelievable.

01:46His putter is incredible.

01:48Ninth in strokes game putting this past season.

01:51And then really around the green,

01:52like we talk about with Scottie.

01:54Roy's really good around the green.

01:56Scrambling statistics I thought was interesting.

01:58He was 15th in 2025 and 17th in 2024.

02:03And it's kind of a trend in what you see

02:06with all of these top players

02:07is that none of these guys are weak around the green.

02:10All of them are really good getting it up and down.

02:12And when you think about it, that's golf, right?

02:15It's like, if you're pretty good hitting it tee to green

02:17and then also you get everything up and down

02:19and you eliminate mistakes,

02:20that's probably how they ended up

02:22being the best players in the world, right?

02:25You know, and it's so interesting

02:27to combine a few of the,

02:29just the topics of discussion around Roy

02:31that you just mentioned to look back

02:33at just the story of this past year extended,

02:36really even going back two years.

02:37Cause I remember, I think it was two years ago

02:39where the big talking point was poor wedge play,

02:43like approach wedge play.

02:44Like maybe like 125 and in, and, and.

02:48But it was good to start this year.

02:49Remember that was the big, yeah.

02:50Well, cause, cause I,

02:51and I think I'm remembering this correctly too.

02:53It's like, he, and this is not,

02:55it was, it was, he switched balls

02:56to kind of change the sort of flight and spin profile.

02:59But it was also,

03:00I promise this is not like a tailor-made

03:02equipment sponsored episode,

03:03but it was, he, he switched

03:05from the, from the tailor-made MG wedges

03:07into Vokies because he didn't like

03:09whichever one of the models was.

03:11I'm just like where the center of gravity was

03:13and the way it was flying.

03:14So I think it was a combination of,

03:15you know, having input on design for the wedges

03:18and then changing the ball to kind of fly

03:20a different way and spin a different way.

03:21And then if you remember this last season,

03:23he had like, I think it was like a month of time

03:26where he didn't hit any shots on a golf course.

03:28He was just in a lab,

03:30just refining one specific sort of move

03:32and change you want to make in the swing.

03:33Then of course he comes into this year.

03:35He wins at Pebble, 18T Pro-Am

03:38and he wins the players in that playoff

03:40against JJ Spahn.

03:41And then of course,

03:42completes the career grand slam with the Masters.

03:44And then coming out of that,

03:45there was the, the failed driver test

03:48that got leaked under somewhat,

03:50you know, dubious circumstances at Quail Hollow.

03:53So he had this feud with the media at the PGA

03:55that extended into just some frustration at Oakmont.

03:58And it was really,

04:00we didn't really see a fully happy Rory again

04:03until he shows up at Portrush.

04:05You know, he's in front of a home crowd

04:06and you so, you know,

04:08beautifully painted the scene there on the ground,

04:10just the roars for Rory that week.

04:12And it felt like at that point,

04:14he got back to Europe, he got back home

04:16and it was able to kind of release some of,

04:18you know, whatever it was

04:19that was the frustration of the past couple months

04:21that maybe we thought we were going to see a freer

04:23Rory McIlroy on the back end

04:25of completing his career grand slam.

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