Sir Nick Faldo and European Ryder Cup captain Thomas Bjørn weigh in on the reboot of Rory McIlroy.

By Kent Gray
Of all the known storylines and potential plot twists to come during the opening fortnight of the new, two-part Desert Swing, none are more intriguing than the return of Rory McIlroy.

The scrutiny in Abu Dhabi and Dubai won’t quite be as intense as it was for Tiger Woods’ comeback in the Bahamas before Christmas – no one moves the needle like the Big Cat – but the Northern Irishman will surely dominate the game’s New Year narrative nonetheless.

When he shut down the first winless year of his career in early October, there was genuine disappointment McIlroy had chosen to bypass the Race to Dubai decider after at least attempting to qualifying for the PGA Tour’s equivalent at East Lake the previous month, before teeing it up in the British Masters and Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.

Eyebrows arched again when the 28-year-old was spied playing the Desert Classic venue as the DP World Tour Championship was coming to its climactic conclusion across town at Jumeirah Golf Estates.

But most, from European Tour chief Keith Pelley down, were prepared to cut McIlroy some slack, satisfied with the recuperation plan he’d outlined following his limp T-63 season sign-off in Scotland.

Indeed, if McIlroy delivers on the blueprint, 2017 will soon be forgotten. The owner of four majors and more than 20 titles worldwide, already a Hall of Fame worthy career, was clearly thinking beyond resting those pesky ribs of his.

“If someone had told me at The Belfry 10 years ago [where he made his pro debut in the 2007 British Masters] that you’re going to do X, Y and Z and I’ve done whatever, I would have been really happy, ecstatic, over the moon,” he said. “But because of the experiences I’ve had in those 10 years and the golfer that I’ve become, these next three months could give me the foundation to have the next 10 years be even better than the 10 years I’ve just had. That turns a great career into one of the greatest careers. So that’s why I think these next few months are really important. I’m looking forward to it.”

The Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship has long eluded the 28-year-old Northern Irishman. (Getty Images)

McIlroy’s transformation started with a trip to a specialist in Manchester for a full physical, including testing for potential food allergies. “There’s been a couple of things this year where my joints have been inflamed or I just haven’t had the right energy levels. So I want to use this time to delve deeper, to see where I can get better and be more disciplined.”

That discipline extended to meal times where McIlroy admitted he’d succumbed to “weaknesses” such as “red wine, dark chocolate, burgers, fries…and everything really.” It seems to have worked – he looked noticeably thinner around the gills in a tweet just before Xmas than he had been in those last press conference pics in October.

As is the modern way, we’ve had to settle for social media snippets for a clue to the swing changes he’s been working on. First it was “Some gate and green reading work today. #progress” Instagram update in late October. A few weeks later he was chipping away with the wedge: “Working on my take away and setting the club a little more vertical half way back”.

That McIlroy had zoned in on his short game was hardly earth shattering. While he topped the driving distance stats on the PGA Tour last season with a 317.2 yard average (his 161st placing in driving accuracy put an interesting spin on that stat), McIlroy ranked only 96th in greens in regulation and struggled the closer he got to the putting surface – his average 29ft 6in proximity to the hole from 125-150 yards left him 190th on tour and he was only a slightly better 145th in shots from 100-125 yards. Coupled with average putting – he was 140th in the over-arching strokes gained category – and it’s clear where even marginal gains could make a major difference.

Time – beyond eight potential rounds in the UAE – will be the ultimate judge of the off-season grind but McIlroy clearly needs to be 100 percent to meet his career reset remit. He intends to play at least 26 events up to the Ryder Cup in France next September, eight of those before the Masters in April which is the next obvious waypoint in his journey to immortality.

“The [career] Grand Slam, that’s probably the next reasonable goal on the agenda,” said McIlroy before verbally painting the big picture. “And try to become the best European golfer ever. I’m trying to surpass Nick Faldo in that.”

A victory in any of this year’s  bigs would move McIlroy within on major of Faldo’s career total of six and edge him ever closer to an even bigger goal.

“If I had a career goal, it would probably be to be the best international golfer ever, you know, Gary Player has nine majors. I’d like to think I’m going to give myself a chance to get close to that tally.

You get demoralised and he’s an emotional guy, he wants things to be running right. So in a way, to go away and recharge the batteries is not such a bad thing. – Sir Nick Faldo

Flashback: Rory McIlroy poses with Nick Faldo after winning the under-17 division of the 2006 Faldo Junior Series at the Celtic Manor Resort in Wales. (Getty Images)

“Obviously the Americans have sort of dominated the world of golf for the last 100 years, with Jack Nicklaus and Tiger [Woods], Walter Hagen and all those guys, but I think that the next goals on my radar are obviously the Grand Slam, try and get the green jacket, and then try and set my sights on becoming the best European ever.”

Faldo, speaking to Golf Digest Middle East during the European final of his global junior series at Al Ain in late November, is delighted to be in McIlroy’s crosshairs. He spoke to McIlroy during the first FedEx Cup playoff event, the Northern Trust in late August, where the Northern Irishman expressed frustration at not being able to practice how he wanted due to the injury. Asked if he saw anything amiss technically, Faldo deferred to the source himself.

“In his own words [Rory said] he was protecting those ribs, dropping the club a little bit on the backswing which is not good,” the CBS analyst said.

“You know, he wants to swing it a certain way and it’s either causing him pain or it’s the fear of it going twang again. If he pops that thing out again, there’s nothing worse than having an injury where you’ve got to lay off golf completely.  I’ve never been through that fully, well a little bit, but not when somebody says ‘you can’t touch a club for two months mate, you’ve got to repair’, that would drive a golfer nuts. I think that’s the main thing, it was definitely getting into his mind that he couldn’t play how he wanted to play.”

For that reason alone, Faldo believes McIlroy made the right call to close down his season early.

“He’s got to have the confidence that this rib is absolutely 100 percent so he can then commit to practicing how he wants to practice. You get in a rut if you don’t feel 100 percent and everything is just a little bit off. You get demoralised and he’s an emotional guy, he wants things to be running right.

“So in a way, to go away and recharge the batteries is not such a bad thing. I think maybe he’s coming out with a new 2018 swing, and body and mind, and [has] set his goals and can just come out and get on with it.”

No one is looking forward to McIlroy getting on with it quite as much as Thomas Bjorn. If the confidence and form rich Team USA (with the emphasis on ‘team’) are to be denied a repeat in Paris, the new European Cup captain needs the likes of McIlroy free wheeling at Le Golf National.

Playing catch up in golf is the worst feeling in the world… no matter how good you are, if you don’t do the practice, you simply can’t keep up with guys at the top of the game. – Thomas Bjørn

McIlroy, the 2009 and 2015 champion, will seek a hat-trick of Omega Dubai Desert Classic dallah’s at Emirates Golf Club. (Getty Images)

Bjorn didn’t play the DP World either (average golf is the penance one pays to be Ryder Cup captain) but he was at JGE. That McIlroy was MIA was of little concern to the Dane, as was the fact his talisman (with all due respect to Ian Poulter) has drifted to 10th in the world rankings, the lowest he’s been since 2014.

“The way I see it, Rory has been playing catch up all year,’ said Bjorn. “He gets to the biggest tournaments in the world, but he hasn’t practiced, he hasn’t been fit, and then he’s playing catch up. That’s the difficult part of the game of golf today – even if you get yourself a little bit behind, the expectations are still the same, so it’s been really hard for him to even play. “

McIlroy’s one regret last year was coming back a “week or two” too soon for the U.S. Open at Erin Hills where he missed the cut and put himself back even further.

“Now he gets some time off,” Bjorn continued “and he can come out early next year and be ready to play on an even playing field with everybody else. That puts him in a good position to get back to where he wants to be. Playing catch up in golf is the worst feeling in the world, because when you haven’t done the work before the big tournaments, you don’t really know where you are, and it’s very easy to miss the results you want.

“I think Rory gets questioned when he doesn’t get the result, and the same thing happened to Tiger – he was always injured, and he went to tournaments without practicing, but the expectations were still so high for him that he could never deliver on the golf course because no matter how good you are, if you don’t do the practice, you simply can’t keep up with guys at the top of the game.”

McIlroy last stood atop the world rankings at the 2015 U.S. Open and the prep work he’s put in at his Dubai base camp in recent months shows he clearly isn’t comfortable with his current standing in the game. A new ascent, and refreshed expectation, begins in Abu Dhabi.