Leadbetter: Rory must free ‘scrambled’ mind to get back in the swing

Rory McIlroy will not rediscover his fluent swing until he finds a way to free his “scrambled” mind, according to renowned golfing guru David Leadbetter.

The man who shaped the swings which enabled former world number ones Nick Faldo and Nick Price to win six and three Majors respectively watched the double-Major-winning Irishman’s season-long struggles extend into the third Major of the year where rounds of 79 and 75 saw him miss The Open Championship midway cut at 12 over par on Friday evening.

McIlroy’s game has suffered this year against a backdrop of switching club and ball manufacturers from Titleist and Nike and a decision to leave his Irish-owned management company, currently locked in a period of legal disengagement, and take control of his own affairs with a family-run firm.

The world number two admitted he had been “brain dead” during the eight-over 79, his worst score of the year relative to par and felt as if he were walking “unconscious” around the Muirfield links, prompting him to consider turning to leading sports psychologist Dr Bob Rotella ahead of his return to the United States and his next tournament, the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational on August 1, followed by his PGA Championship title defence in Rochester, New York, a week later.

Leadbetter, speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live, identified a number of faults in McIlroy’s swing but believes the 24-year-old could turn things around.

“I think he’s got to unmuddle his mind. His mind right now is scrambled and I think he’s got so much going on behind the scenes he just needs to be able to get out and play golf and forget everything else,” Leadbetter said.

“Technically, even with Rory at his best, you can nitpick and find a couple of things. To me, his hands tend to work outside on the way back and he drops the club down on the way back down.

“The problem is how you fix the club coming too far inside. You can see he’s hit some huge hooks at times, we saw that at Augusta a couple of years ago when his problems started on the back nine.”

McIlroy has won two Majors since that nightmare back nine in the 2011 Masters, making amends for blowing his lead at Augusta National with a commanding eight-shot victory at the next opportunity, the US Open at Congressional Country Club before winning by the same margin at Kiawah Island 11 months ago in the 2012 PGA.

Leadbetter knows the brilliance McIlroy can produce but his current mindset will bring out the technical glitches in that wonderfully natural swing.

“The thing I love about his golf swing is the free flow. Great rhythm, we know, can cover up a few ills in the swing, so obviously in his state of mind right now the flaws are probably going to come out a little bit more.

“When he’s in a great frame of mind, and his timing’s great I don’t think he’s going to have a problem. But from a technical standpoint you’d like to see the hands working the club back, where the clubhead stays outside the hands a bit more and get the club a little bit more in front of him because he looks like he finds it hard to hit a fade, which is not a great situation to be in. So there’s a couple of little things.”