'It went from my least favourite major to my favourite' - Rory McIlroy's mind sharpens as Oakmont looms

TAKING AIM: Rory McIlroy takes it down the last in his practice round ahead of the 125th US Open at Oakmont Country. Pic: David Cannon/Getty Images

Plans and targets, goals and motivations, the driving why, the guiding north star. Rory McIlroy, it is clear, doesn’t really have any of the above right now.

Not like he had them before April 13, anyway. But eight-plus weeks of shrugging and pausing and pensive pondering, hasn’t stopped McIlroy being pressed on all of the above either. Tuesday at Oakmont was another such occasion.

In its setting and presentation it’s a pre-tournament press conference but for the post-Augusta 2025 version of McIlroy, such things have become something else. Lifestyle therapy session meets corporate job interview meets high-performance podcast.

Interspersed between the enquiries around his driver, the devilish rough around Oakmont and strength versus length, McIlroy was pushed on a “five-year plan for this next phase of Rory” and “resetting difficulties” and “regaining motivation” in his professional life.

The tone is such that McIlroy might swivel in his chair and see he was in fact joined at the top table by fellow panellists such as Tony Robbins or Marie Kondo.

The Japanese organisational guru may love mess. McIlroy doesn’t. But on the course things have been messy since the Masters.

Last week in Toronto they were a holy show. This week, Oakmont’s wild fringes are primed to make a shambles of US Open scorecards for those who aren’t completely locked in.

That’s something McIlroy knows this all too well. In between the pauses and deep-ish thoughts, he revealed that he needed back-to-back closing birdies to avoid carding an 81 during a practice session at the Pittsburgh course last week.

Tuesday's nine-hole tune-up alongside Shane Lowry, the friends setting off at first light, had thankfully gone a good bit better.

But back to that five-year plan? "I don't have one,” McIlroy replied. “I have no idea.”

At Augusta McIlroy lifted 11 years of slow-seeping existential dread. Then he lifted a replica of the clubhouse and put on a green jacket. Since, he’s not had so much as a five-day plan.

Last weekend, when a first missed cut of the year gave him unexpected time off, he spent some of it playing tennis with Harry Diamond. Hobbies are more important to him now. He’s been travelling with the family too. Motivations, quirky things at the best of times, have changed.

It was striking that after McIlroy left the interview room, Bryson DeChambeau followed him in. The tone was…different. The reigning champion, who held strong when McIlroy imploded at Pinehurst last year, was asked about his motivations.

"Doing it for the fans, patrons and the people that are viewing myself on YouTube,” DeChambeau replied. “That's really what gets me up in the morning.”

More YouTube then, Rory. Yet the McIlroy mind has sharpened. Landing in to the week of a tournament which “went from probably my least favourite major to probably my favourite because of what it asks from you” does that.

“I think it’s [about] trying to have a little bit of amnesia and forget about what happened six weeks ago,” McIlroy said.

“I worked incredibly hard on my game from October last year all the way up until April this year. It was nice to sort of see the fruits of my labour come to fruition and have everything happen. You have to enjoy that.

“At some point, you have to realize that there's a little bit more golf left to play this season: here, Portrush, Ryder Cup. Those are obviously the three big things that I'm looking at.”

Oakmont wasn’t kind to him in 2016. It kicked off a run of three-straight missed US Open cuts. Since, he has six top-10s in a row with back-to-back second-place finishes. To extend that run, many things have to be fixed. But first thing’s first. The opening tee shot and the biggest club in the bag which will be used to hit it.

Having quickly returned to Florida from Toronto Friday, McIlroy was asked what he had learned at home? “I learned that I wasn't using the right driver,” he replied to laughter.

During his back nine practice with Lowry, McIlroy used a TaylorMade Qi10 driver. That was the model he swung to success at the Masters only to see his favoured one fail a compliance test prior to the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow.

Since then things have been far from reliable as he cycled between replacements and the Qi35 model which let him down in Canada.

“Every driver has its own character and you're trying to manage the misses,” McIlroy said. “As the last few weeks go, I learnt a lot on Thursday and Friday last week and did a good bit of practice at home and feel like I'm in a better place with everything going into this week.”

Asked how big an impact it had made at Quail Hollow not to have his ‘gamer’ driver, McIlroy pointed to the eventual winner: “it wasn't a big deal for Scottie, so it shouldn't have been a big deal for me.” On Tuesday morning he found some fairways. The course had mercifully been giving a soaking since the week before.

“There's definitely been a little bit of rain since. Last Monday felt impossible. I birdied the last two holes for 81. It didn't feel like I played that bad,” he said.

"I'm glad we have spotters up there because I played last Monday and you hit a ball off the fairway and you were looking for a good couple of minutes just to find it. It's very penal if you miss.

"But the person with the most patience and the best attitude this week is the one that's going to win.”