Sam Torrance
For much of his 18-month drought, which ended with a magnificent victory at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Florida on Sunday, we saw Rory McIlroy playing very well.
The problem was that he struggled to sustain his performance over a whole week, and I think that was borne out of frustration with his putting. It gnawed away at him and sapped his will to keep going.
So he turned to Brad Faxon, one of the greatest putters of all time, for advice last week. Faxon told Rory not to overthink his putting and to try to rediscover a more natural, intuitive approach.
Read more: Former world No1 McIlroy ends 18-month title drought
It worked a treat and we saw an enormous change in McIlroy’s stroke as he recorded a three-shot win at Bay Hill.
He putted beautifully especially on the back nine when the pressure was on, holing birdies in five of the last six holes. Putting is totally down to mentality and Rory seemed to have freed his mind.
His triumphant return was great to see because Rory is as good as anyone on tour. He started well on Thursday, playing the first 17 holes in five under par only to double bogey the last after hitting out of bounds, but he kept going brilliantly.
I think we’ll see a huge step up from him now and, less than three weeks out from the Masters, this will have quadrupled his chances of claiming that elusive Green Jacket.
He will be desperate to get to Augusta but he is experienced enough to take everything in his stride.
A lot has been made of him needing the Masters to complete the career grand slam, and his famous final-day collapse in 2011, but I don’t think he is obsessed with it any more.
He has grown in stature as his career has gone on and I think he’s a bigger man than that. He knows in his heart that he will win it one day.
This was his first win since getting married almost a year ago, and we saw with Sergio Garcia at last year’s Masters how important a happy and settled family life can be to a player’s success.
Perhaps this year it will be Rory, and a win that might even rival Garcia’s for popularity.
Tiger on the prowl again
McIlroy has quickly been installed as the bookmakers’ favourite for the Green Jacket but there is a long list of rivals, including England’s Justin Rose, who continued his steady improvement by finishing third on Sunday, and of course the resurgent Tiger Woods.
A few months ago you would have got very long odds on Tiger landing a fifth Masters this year. Now his odds are in single figures after the 14-time Major winner continued his revival with a share of fifth place on Sunday.
That is awesome and, while he didn’t look like he was going to win, he would have finished higher up the leaderboard but for bogeys at 16 and 17. Like Rory, his improvement seems to have coincided with losing a little bit of bulk.
His return to form is great for golf and I imagine that he will have drawn on Phil Mickelson’s own recent rallying, as the pair have long had a wonderful rivalry.