Rory McIlroy may want to revisit that decision to dump his longtime swing coach Michael Bannon. The 31-year old Northern Ireland star recently hired Pete Cowen as his new swing coach with the hope of turning top 10s into victories, and breaking a lengthy winless streak.
Yet, since Cowen has come on board, McIlroy has missed the cut at The PLAYERS, failed to get out of his group at the WGC-Match Play (which was essentially a missed-cut), and then yesterday missed the weekend at The Masters.
McIlroy followed up an opening-round 76 with a second-day 74, which featured bogeys on Nos. 5 and 7 and a double-bogey dagger on the par-4 10th which effectively ended his week. He would make birdies on the two inward par-5s but it was not enough. At 6-over par 150, McIlroy was three shots above the cut line.
In a PGA Tour season, there are five major events: The Players, The Masters, PGA Championship, U.S. Open, and The Open Championship. McIlroy has missed the cut in the first two of the early 2021 season.
And for the seventh time, the four-time major winner will spend another 12 months one green jacket short of a career triple crown.
McIlroy, though, was in no mood to discuss this, or anything for that matter, as he refused all interviews, and headed home to Florida… possibly wondering if those top-10 finishes earlier in the season were as bad as they seemed.
