Weekend Wrap

Ho hum, another week, another dominating performance by the Ulsterman.  Please bear in mind, though, that according to Sports Illustrated we've entered the Jordan Spieth era. 

I like Jordan as much as the next guy, but it seems clear that if each plays at their best that Rory wins because of his ability to turn 7,500 yard golf courses into pitch and putts.  After Rory torched Quail Hollow for a record-breaking (and it was his own record) 61, J. Held posted this chart of the clubs Rory hit into greens:

He's highlighted the par-3's, but how about playing a 508-yard hole with driver-nine iron?  Then on Sunday he pulverized the difficult 16th, leaving our Shack braying at the moon:

For the millionth time, all kudos to Rory McIlroy for the gym time and to his team for launch monitor work allowing him to turn a 514-yard par-4 into a drive and gap-wedge hole. Still, does it not at least raise a few eyebrows of those wondering when the distance chase will end? 

On Quail Hollow's 16th, en route to a dominating Wells Fargo Championship win, McIlroy's overpowering of the 16th is impressive. But is there a point when the numbers become so silly that the fan finds them farcical and views the game as juiced? 

Either way, as long as it makes Johnny Harris spend more money on new tees for the 2017 PGA and prompts him to send the bill to the USGA and R&A, I'm good with it!

Feel better now that you got that off your chest, Geoff?  Here's the CBS tape of Gary McCord suspending his disbelief:

Rory averaged 321.1 yards off the tee, leading the field.  His longest of the week was 364 yards, but that was only good for second place...and he hit 55% of his fairways.  Good luck beating that combo...

Now, the obligatory note of caution, as the summer sets up to be incredibly exciting.  But as for Rory, this year's major venues seem uniquely designed to perhaps stall his momentum.  The Tour Confidential was asked to speculate on what we might see from Rory thus summer, and that Van Cynical guy caught the nail right on the sweet spot:

Gary Van Sickle, senior writer, Sports Illustrated: The guy just shot 61 and won going away. Kinda hard to be objective this minute. I say he wins both Opens by a touchdown. Unless it's windy at either place, in which case all bets are off.

Chambers Bay is a wild card, as none of us know what to expect.  But the fact that Rory opened 63-80 on The Old Course in 2010, pretty much sums up the range of potential outcomes there.  If it's calm, he's got five Par-4's that he can potentially drive, but if the wind is up....

We don't spend much time on equipment here at Unplayable Lies, But Golf Digest's E. Michael Johnson tells us that Rory is in a good place:

It took a little bit, but Rory McIlroy seems to have found the right driver-shaft combination. At the Wells Fargo Championship, McIlroy used his Nike Vapor Pro with a Mitsubishi Diamana Blue Board S+ 70 TX shaft to lead the field in driving distance with an eye-catching 321.1 yards.

I'll speculate that, Rory's dominance aside, over the long term this event's greatest significance might turn out to be the emergence of Patrick Rodgers among the group of challengers for Rory.  At 22 he's struggled to get opportunities to tee it up on the big tour, but add him to your list of challengers for the aged Rory (who just turned 26).  Rodgers was a great collegiate player at Stanford, tying a record of eleven winds held by Eldrick Something-or-Other.  With Spieth, Justin Thomas, Patrick Reed, and now Rodgers in the mix (and I'm obviously skipping many names that could be added to this list), we should treated to some great rivalries over the next few years.

I expect to be back with more later.