SPRINGFIELD, N.J. — It was on the eve of this month’s British Open that the world’s top four ranked golfers — Jason Day, Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy — were compared to the Beatles, the original Fab Four.
Running with the analogy, a British journalist wondered if McIlroy wasn’t in danger of becoming Ringo.
McIlroy took the intended slight in stride, ducking the unprovoked Ringo jab to counterpunch.
“I’ve got four major championships, and I’d love to add to that tally, just as those guys would love to add to their one and two majors,” McIlroy responded.
McIlroy was pulling rank, putting Day and Johnson, the one-time major winners, in their place just behind Spieth’s two majors.
But with each round McIlroy plays in a major championship this year, it is getting harder for him to talk away his stumbles in the sport’s biggest tournaments. And it is hard to ignore that Henrik Stenson is threatening to reorder the names in golf’s Fab Four.
In Thursday’s first round of the P.G.A. Championship, an event he has won twice, McIlroy shot a listless and unsteady four-over-par 74. It was a score that put the 27-year-old McIlroy in a tie with 50-year-old John Daly, 53-year-old Vijay Singh and 47-year-old Darren Clarke.
Now, who doesn’t belong in that Fab Four?
Any golfer can have a bad day (Johnson, in fact, had a worse one than McIlroy, with a 77); it’s not golf without the implausible and the unpredictable. But a clear trend is developing in the recent majors for McIlroy, who five years ago effervescently won his first major, bounding around Congressional Country Club to win the United States Open by eight strokes.
Even two years ago, McIlroy seemed on the verge of an authoritative run after winning the last two major championships of the 2014 season.
The succeeding two years have not been what was expected for McIlroy. He not only has not won another major, his four major championship performances so far this season have been underwhelming. Yes, he tied for 10th at the Masters and was tied for fifth at the British Open, but those finishes were deceptive.
At the Masters, he was just one stroke behind Spieth, who was leading, until he imploded with a 77 in the third round. No longer a serious contender, he rallied with a 71 in the final round to crack the top 10.
At the United States Open, he missed the cut with another 77-71 combination. At the British Open, he got within shouting distance of the leaders at the halfway mark, then shot a two-over-par 73 and failed to keep up with the surging Stenson and Phil Mickelson. No longer a threat, he again closed splendidly with a 67, but it still left him 16 strokes from the top of the leaderboard.
This week, McIlroy should have felt invigorated. The Baltusrol Golf Club is made for his game as it rewards long, straight drives on lengthy holes that do not curve and bend as much as other championship courses. During Thursday’s first round, McIlroy’s tee shots were booming. But a host of mistakes usually followed.
On the second hole he played, Baltusrol’s 11th, he badly missed a makable 10-foot birdie putt. Two holes later, McIlroy’s tee shot traveled 326 yards, but his approach flew past the flag into the rough and led to the first of his four bogeys.
Another bogey followed at the next hole when he blasted from the rough to a greenside bunker. A third bogey occurred when McIlroy’s shot from a greenside bunker skipped nearly 40 feet away from the hole. The last hiccup was a three-putt bogey.
Even when McIlroy appeared to be rousing himself out of his stupor, he could not close the deal. On Baltusrol’s signature par-3 fourth hole, McIlroy curved a beautiful shot to within 7 feet. His birdie putt lipped out, and McIlroy’s entire upper body slumped.
“It just wasn’t my day,” McIlroy said afterward. “I was happy how I played tee to green for the most part. But on the greens, it was a different story.”
McIlroy has fiddled with his putting grip, switching to a left-hand-low grip in March before abandoning it for a conventional grip two months later. He rarely looked comfortable on the greens Thursday, when it took 35 putts to negotiate 18 holes.
“I’m struggling,” he said. “And, yeah, it’s hard.”
McIlroy has gone through periods like this before only to break out with another stretch of inspired play. He won his first P.G.A. Championship and two PGA Tour events in less than 30 days in 2012.
So it would be foolish to wonder if McIlroy’s funk will be lasting. Surely, there will be a rebound. But something is missing and McIlroy has yet to figure out what it is.
“The most important thing is that I’ve got to try and shoot something in the 60s tomorrow to get back in the mix,” he said.
But doubt, the genesis of all high golf scores, is creeping in. And that’s not good — or fabulous — for the world’s fourth-ranked golfer.
“Hopefully, I’m not shut out tomorrow,” McIlroy said. “I can’t remember the last time I went without a birdie.
“I think it’s more of a mental thing. Maybe I need to be a little bit more assertive and not quite as tentative.”
