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Rory McIlroy has made a major change to his putting technique and after missing the cut in the Honda Classic last week, he posted a video on social media of himself practising putting with his left hand below his right on the grip.
At Doral the world number three confirmed on Wednesday that he intends to use the “crosshanded” method in competition, starting with this week’s WGC-Cadillac Championship.
“It’s a drill I’ve been doing for a while because I feel like my left hand controls my putting stroke and I felt over the past few weeks my right hand was becoming a little bit too dominant,” McIlroy, who used the method in his first full season as a professional in 2008, said in his pre-tournament press conference.
“It’s one of those things where the drill started to feel a little bit better than the real thing, so I’m just going to stick with it. I feel like it’s something I’m going to stick with, regardless of what the outcome is tomorrow, or this week or next week.
“I really do feel like it helps me put a stroke on it that I want to. It’s a great feeling. I feel like it gives my putting stroke a bit more of a better rhythm, as well, a better flow.”
McIlroy is currently ranked 68th on the European Tour with an average of 29.3 putts per round, but eighth in putts per green in regulation with an average of 1.698.
The 26-year-old started the season by finishing third in Abu Dhabi and sixth in Dubai, but slipped to a tie for 20th in the Northern Trust Open after sharing the lead with 17 holes to play, before missing the cut in the Honda Classic for the second year in succession.
McIlroy blamed “silly mental errors” for his back-to-back rounds of 72 at PGA National, adding: “There was a lot of good in there. I made more birdies the first two days than Rickie (Fowler) did and Rickie’s leading the tournament.
“So if I can limit my mistakes and not make these silly mental errors and just play a little more . . . I don’t know if it’s smartly or conservatively or just take an extra couple of seconds just to think about what you really need to do.
“I’m a very instinctive player so I step up and I hit it and sometimes that can work for me if everything is going with me and I have momentum, but also if I am battling and grinding that can work against me. It’s trying to find a balance.”
McIlroy welcomed the “kick in the backside” his performance at PGA National provided 12 months ago but went on to hit the headlines for the wrong reasons at Doral after throwing his three-iron into a lake during his second round.
World number two Jason Day, who will play alongside McIlroy and world number one Jordan Spieth in the first two rounds, has also made a slow start to the season after a three-month break around the birth of his second child.
But the US PGA champion was in confident mood after seeking advice from the sidelined Tiger Woods in an hour-long phone call last week.
“It was a good call,” Day told his pre-tournament press conference. “If you’re going to pick a guy’s brain, he’s the guy. I can’t count how many times he said effort and mindset and everything, (it) had to do a lot with the mind.
“Once I improve the mental game for myself, this is the last piece of the puzzle for me, I believe, and I think I’ll be able to go out there and just kind of kill it.
“Every time that I talk to him, it’s mindset, mental toughness, effort. It didn’t matter how bad it was; if it was a course that he did not like, he was just going to flat out execute you. It did not matter.
“That’s that killer instinct that I need to get back like I had at the second half of last year, get back and take it into this year and go through with it.”
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