{"id":331325,"date":"2025-08-09T19:44:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-09T19:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/331325\/"},"modified":"2025-08-09T19:44:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-09T19:44:09","slug":"rory-mcilroy-shares-mistake-amateur-golfers-make-and-what-they-must-do-golf-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/331325\/","title":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy shares mistake amateur golfers make and what they must do | Golf | Sport"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Rory McIlroy has revealed a crucial tip for weekend <a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/sport\/golf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">golfers<\/a> looking to slash their handicaps. Recreational players may fantasise about emulating the five-time major winner&#8217;s prowess, but they can realistically lower their handicap by heeding one straightforward, if rather dull, piece of wisdom from the Northern Irish star.<\/p>\n<p>The <a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/sport\/golf\/2041228\/rory-mcilroy-wins-masters-career-grand-slam-justin-rose\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Masters champion<\/a> regularly partners with amateur players and celebrities during pre-tournament pro-am events across the PGA Tour. Naturally, many seek his expertise on enhancing their performance, yet <a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/latest\/rory-mcilroy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">McIlroy<\/a> believes they often focus on the wrong areas entirely. Following the recent Travelers Championship, the former world No.1 explained: &#8220;I&#8217;ll certainly help them to read a green. But the last thing they need is more swing thoughts in their head when they&#8217;re playing in these pro-ams.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Instead of obsessing over technical swing mechanics, golfers would benefit far more from sharpening their strategic thinking and staying within their limitations.\u00a0McIlroy added: &#8220;I think sometimes it&#8217;s just they try to take shots on or they try to hit a shot that they probably could pull off once or twice out of 10 instead of playing a little bit more percentage. That&#8217;s boring, but that&#8217;s certainly the most effective way to lower your score.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>McIlroy is resetting his focus and schedule to ensure he&#8217;s in peak condition for Europe&#8217;s Ryder Cup defence. After a seventh-place finish at the Open, where world No.1 <a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/latest\/scottie-scheffler\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Scottie Scheffler<\/a> claimed victory, McIlroy is determined to end 2025 on a high.<\/p>\n<p>Having overcome a rough patch following his Masters triumph in April, which secured him the career Grand Slam, the 36-year-old is intent on bringing his A-game to Bethpage in New York in September.<\/p>\n<p>While he has the FedEx Cup play-offs on his schedule,\u00a0<a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/sport\/golf\/2091406\/Rory-McIlroy-ban-PGA-Tour-loophole\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">McIlroy has decided to skip the first event,<\/a>\u00a0the St Jude Championship. His main focus is on the Ryder Cup and winning the competition on American soil for the first time since the <a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/sport\/golf\/1812514\/Rory-McIlroy-Ryder-Cup-police-escort\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">&#8216;Miracle of Medinah&#8217; in 2012.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>He said: &#8220;I feel like being back in Europe for a bit was a nice reset. I feel like I&#8217;m getting back to where I want to be and we&#8217;ve still got a lot of golf left this year with obviously Ryder Cup being the big one in there in September.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t want to play too much leading up to that because I want to be fresh, so I&#8217;m looking forward to a few weeks off here. I&#8217;ll reflect on what&#8217;s already been a good year and start to get myself ready for that run up to the Ryder Cup.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The year kicked off superbly for McIlroy with a win at the Pebble Beach Pro-am in February, followed by triumph at the Players Championship in March and then the crowning glory at Augusta in April. Since then, he hasn&#8217;t clinched another title, while Scheffler has surged ahead with four victories, including <a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/sport\/golf\/2084276\/golf-live-rory-mcilroy-the-open-bryson-dechambeau\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">two majors at The Open<\/a> and US PGA, gaining significant momentum.<\/p>\n<p>McIlroy believes his early-season sharpness has returned and insists he isn&#8217;t being driven on by Scheffler&#8217;s brilliance. He said: &#8220;Yeah, I do feel good. But I also had the three wins when Scottie wasn&#8217;t quite on his game.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;All I can do is focus on myself and try to play the best golf that I can. I know that, when I do that, I&#8217;ll have my weeks where I&#8217;ll contend and hopefully win.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy has revealed a crucial tip for weekend golfers looking to slash their handicaps. Recreational players may&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":331326,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4106],"tags":[118974,2826,4365,4366,4298,4287,4321,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-331325","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-amateur-golfers","9":"tag-golf","10":"tag-golf-section","11":"tag-golf-news","12":"tag-pga-tour","13":"tag-rory-mcilroy","14":"tag-ryder-cup","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115000527163926139","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}