The Riviera forbids it. But Rory McIlroy still did it – in spectacular fashion
Many golf shots are the best at causing anxiety: flop shots off hardpan, driver off the deck, Jordan Spieth. . . well. . . [insert shot here]. But there’s certainly no shot as scary as a green break. Thankfully, we don’t often witness such criminals, because (1) there is rarely a need for such a shot, and (2) the level of difficulty is so high that no person with a handicap above, oh, plus-4 or -5 would or should think about trying to risk it.
That brings us to Rory McIlroy, who in the first round of the Genesis Invitational at Riviera on Thursday found himself blocked by a fairway on the 3rd 6th. Riviera’s membership is not allowed to hit a shot on the 6th green during regular club play, but that rule does not apply when the pros come to town.
So McIlroy grabbed the lofted club and sliced his ball into the putt with a surgeon’s touch. The ball flew about 30 yards, carried the fairway and landed about 20 feet above the hole before ricocheting down the slope for the fairway. “It’s magic there,” said a voice from the booth.
It it was magic, which means McIlroy pulled a gun out of his hat. He was practicing. There is a lot. After his opening five-under 66 gave him the lead, McIlroy explained that he was honing his short game at the Bear’s Club in South Florida by cutting the greens. “It really helps me control my low point and find the low point,” he said. “If you can cut through a lie as strong or crude as that, you can cut through any lie.”
He added, “The superintendent may not like it very much, but it helps.”
Paul Azinger used to do the same thing. The same goes for Luke Donald, who a few years ago posted a tutorial on Instagram about how off the green can help you use the wedge bounce effectively. “The body and the club rotate together during the swing,” he wrote among other tips. “Notice how my body is facing my target at the end even though it’s a short shot and my club is in line with my spine.”
It sounds tricky, and it is. When Gary Woodland went from one side of the 17th green of Pebble Beach to the other in the deciding moments of the 2019 US Open – and almost went out – Curtis Strange, who was calling the action for NBC, said, “That would have been the best shot of his life.”
McIlroy’s chip shot on 6 wasn’t his only strike of the day. Because of the wet and windy conditions, his full (and still developing) gunnery was on display, namely a scrap, a low-spin steel gun and an ammunition drive that stayed under the wind, like the rope he hit on 4 18.
“On some tee shots I don’t like getting the ball in the air,” he said. “If I feel like I can keep it down, it ends up being in front of me. … It’s obviously a hill.” [on 18 is] about 20 yards farther than a few years ago, so when I hit the tee shot I was like, ‘Oh, go, just go a little bit.’ It was good, but it was a good shot to have in the bag.”
As of this writing, McIlroy was two under four through four in his second round and seven under overall, two behind Xander Schaufelle’s lead.
