McIlroy gets a pre-Masters tune-up from Butch
AK returns to the real world after tuning it all out
The Daily Drive is gearing up for Masters week with a little bit of live news and a preview weekend that takes a look back.
Swing Harmon-y: Rory seeks sage counsel
When in doubt, go talk to Butch Harmon.
That is what Rory McIlroy did in anticipation of next week’s Masters, where for the 10th year he will attempt to complete the career Grand Slam.
McIlroy said at the Valero Texas Open that he went to see Harmon in Las Vegas as a way to tighten things up in his game that has been inconsistent at best over the past two months.
“I’ve done this a number of times in my career,” McIlroy said. “I met Butch when I was 14 years old, so we’ve always had a good relationship. If there’s one guy I want to go and get a second opinion from, it’s him.”
McIlroy isn’t leaving his longtime coach, Michael Bannon. He simply wanted to a tune-up with the eyes of another instructor after having some difficulty with his iron play in recent tournaments.
Butch Harmon and Rory McIlroy have consulted through the years, including 2016 PGA. (Stuart Franklin/Getty Images)
The four-time major winner from Northern Ireland lamented a difficulty in transitioning from tee shots to iron shots, the latter of which he was enduring a technical flaw that resulted in a tendency to pull to the left.
At the Players Championship, McIlroy was second in the field in birdies but still finished in a tie for 19th because of an abundance of mistakes.
“Just after the Players — and just sort of struggling through that Florida Swing with my swing and with some of the misses I was having with my irons — I thought to myself I’m obviously missing something here and I just would love to go and get a second opinion and have him take a look, a second set of eyes,” McIlroy said.
“The one thing with Butch is you go spend time with him and you're always going to feel better about yourself at the end of it whether you're hitting it better or not. He's sort of half golf coach, half psychologist in a way. It's fun to go out there. I went and spent probably four hours with him in Vegas.
“He said a couple of things to me that resonated. It's the same stuff that I've been trying to do with my coach, Michael (Bannon), but he sort of just said it in a different way that maybe hit home with me a little bit more.”
Harmon, 80, has worked with a slew of top players over the years, including Greg Norman, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka. He no longer attends tournaments to teach but has players come to him in Las Vegas.
McIlroy has struggled to consistently get into contention at the Masters since he was the 54-hole leader by four shots in 2011, even holding the lead on the 10th tee before a back-nine 43 led to a score of 80.
Two years ago, he finished second to Scottie Scheffler after a final-round 64 but was too far back to reel in the leader. Last year, entering with considerable fanfare and confidence, McIlroy missed the cut.
“Good golf at Augusta feels like boring golf and I think that’s something that I’ve always struggled with because that’s not my game,” McIlroy said. “It’s the biggest test of discipline and the biggest test of patience of the year for me.”
AK emerges from time capsule
For Anthony Kim … it’s been, well, a long time.
AK disappeared from the golf world for 12 years. And while he became somewhat of a legendary figure because of his absence from the pro game and public view, he clearly had issues he was dealing with.
Kim, 38, hinted at some of those problems during a news conference at Doral on Thursday, where he is playing in his third LIV Golf event that begins on Friday.
There were injuries and surgeries (seven) and addiction (undisclosed) issues and personal demons that he said required professional help. At one point, Kim said a doctor told him he “didn’t have much time’’ and said it was “very possible I wouldn’t be here talking to you guys.’’ He did not elaborate, and said there would be more details revealed in a forthcoming documentary.
But AK did let out a few hints. After withdrawing from the Wells Fargo Championship in 2012 after the first round due to an Achilles injury, Kim was rarely seen or heard from since. An alleged 10-figure insurance policy based on injury was believed to be part of the reason.
Anthony Kim has had to learn new rules since his absence. (Jon Ferrey/LIV Golf)
Kim said, however, that he retreated entirely from golf. He was like that Geico caveman who was unfrozen and woke up in a world that was foreign to him.
AK said he had no idea that Brooks Koepka had won the same major in consecutive years twice. And he was only vaguely aware that Tiger Woods won the 2019 Masters. He only learned this week that the rule prohibiting removing loose impediments in bunkers no longer existed. At the LIV Golf Jeddah tournament in Saudi Arabia, where he finished last by 11 strokes, Kim attempted to take a drop from shoulder height. The rule stipulating you drop from knee length was changed in 2019.
“Where I was in my life, I really wasn’t focused on golf,’’ Kim said about the Woods victory five years ago at Augusta. “I definitely heard that it happened, but I mean, you know, going through some of the things I’ve gone through in my life, I wasn’t focused on golf. I didn’t care about somebody who won a golf tournament.
“There’s so many other big issues going on in the world that golf is such a small part of it. And obviously for all of us, it gives us a great platform to be able to speak to a large group of people. But at the same time, it’s just golf.’’
Kim, who won three times on the PGA Tour, has played in two LIV Golf events as well as an International Series event on the Asian Tour, where he missed the cut. He is a wildcard player for LIV, meaning he is not on a team, and has a contract for the rest of this year.
Anna Davis misses second straight ANWA cut since 2022 victory. (Shanna Lockwood/ANWA)
Slow-play penalty costs ANWA champ dearly
Anna Davis, the 2022 Augusta National Women’s Amateur champion, left this year’s ANWA in tears on Thursday after a slow-play penalty caused her to miss the 36-hole cut at Champions Retreat and lose a spot in Saturday’s final round at Augusta National.
Davis, now a freshman at Auburn, was assessed a one-stroke penalty for slow play in the second round on Thursday. She had finished the day at 3-over par and inside the top 30 to make the cut, but the one shot dropped her to 4-over and out of the tournament.
ANWA rules officials warned Davis and her playing partners on multiple occasions that they were “out of position.” Per the tournament’s pace-of-play policies — which allows 40 seconds to play a stroke or 50 seconds if they are the first to play — the group, which including 36-hole leader Lottie Woad, was officially put on the clock.
After the round, Davis was the only player in the group assessed a penalty.
“Anna Davis was assessed a one-stroke penalty for violation of the Tournament’s Pace of Play Policy,” a statement from tournament officials read. “Her group, which included Lottie Woad and Maria Jose Marin, was notified that they were out of position multiple times during their second round. While being timed, Davis received her first bad time after playing her second stroke on No. 5 and received her second bad time following her second stroke on hole No. 17. She was subsequently assessed a one-stroke penalty, which was applied on hole No. 17.”
It’s the second straight year that Davis has missed the cut since winning the ANWA as a 16-year-old, and both times she was dinged by the rules. Last year at Champions Retreat lift, clean and place rules were in effect during the first round. Davis, however, didn’t realize the rule only allowed players to clean their balls from “closely mown areas” like the fairway and mistakenly wiped off her ball twice on the first hole out of the shallow rough. She was assessed two shots for each infraction and eventually missed the cut.