Is Rory still the best player in the world?

[sonnygolf]

If not who is

[MattyO1984]

No.

The talk for the last six years is that when he is on his A game his his unbeatable. When was the last time we saw this A game with any great consistency? He had a great 2019 - 4 wins - but for players at his level, they are not judged on how many Canadian Open’s they win. It’s majors and nothing but and at this moment, he has fallen behind expectations. Back Door Top 10’s are about all he has produced in majors for the last 5 years and I cannot recall any major where he hasn’t thrown in at leat one ridiculous round where he has played himself out of genuinely contending. His old A game is not currently within his reach. What’s more, I wonder how much desire there is there to put in the work to get back to it.

 

I can see guys like JT, Rahm, Bryson all still hungry for what Rory had putting the work in and grinding their asses off. They aren’t sitting at home reading books on philosophy or meditating.

 

JT’s putting wasn’t with him this past week but I would take him over Rory when they are both at their best.

[Dave230]

I wonder was Rory was too good early and didn’t have a proper childhood and college years and he’s almost trying to overcompensate now.

He left school at 16 pretty much to play full-time golf and it wasn’t because he wasn’t intelligent. Most of the other top players certainly finished school at the very least and had a bit of college life.

It is great to enrich your life by reading but maybe Rory has too much perspective for top level golf if that’s such a thing. Great for life but not for winning major tournaments, where you need to be delusional and believe this is the most important thing in the world even when it isn’t.

[MattyO1984]

Yeah, I am totally with you on that point. Can you imagine Tiger on any of Rory’s peers sitting down and flicking through a book called ‘Ego is the Enemy’? Not a chance. That’s not a slight on them at all but to me, it just speaks that their focus is somewhere else.

[Holy Moses]

There is no standout #1 right now. JT, Bryson, Brooks, Rory, Rahm, and Morikawa are going to be a revolving #1 soon. It’s useless to say “If X player has his A game, he’s unbeatable” since most players have their A games for a short time not named Tiger Woods in his prime and the players don’t have their A games simultaneously to judge.

[TLUBulldogGolf]

I wouldn't put him as a clear number 1 and probably not number 1 at all. He just hasn't put it together in the majors. Brooks, JT, Rahm, and now Morikawa all have to be right up there.

[J13]

Morikawa is playing the best golf in the last 12 months and just won a major. So right now I'd saw he's the best player out there.

[MUNIGRIT]

Definitely No. Thomas would be my pick as of right now but can't argue that nobody is olaying better than Collin M.

[naval2006]

I doubt it, but his swing IS the world's best looking by a mile.

[Dave230]

Rory says maybe he's not as good as he used to be Rory McIlroy: Maybe I’m just not as good as I used to be

[bscinstnct]

Rory be like,

 

Ok, that’s it, I haven’t won a major in almost 6 years. Time to do this! (Sets alarm for 5am to practice)

 

....alarm goes off. Rory gets up, gets an update to his phone with his bank info...

 

Your account balance is $120,000,000.00

 

Goes back to sleep ; )

 

 

[redfirebird08]

 

Paul Azinger said it years ago when Rory was about to win the 2014 Open in dominant fashion. “He’s an ordinary kid who is blessed with extraordinary golf talent.” I think that fits very well with your analysis.

[cdnglf]

Rory hasn’t been sharp since the re-start and consequently isn’t OWGR #1 at the moment, but overall he is the best player younger than Tiger, and it isn’t close.

 

Most weeks at #1, most majors, most wins overall, second most PGA Tour wins, most Fed-Ex Cups, most PotY.

 

In the past 10+ years, he’s been in the OWGR top 10 for all but a handful of weeks.

[monty09]

I feel golf is such a business to these guys... who is #1 has some impact to them but not nearly as much as we think. Winning is important but so is building their "brand"

[Darth Putter]

If you tossed out the minimum divisor, Collin Morikawa would be #1 in the OWGR by about a twenty percent margin over the field.

[Darth Putter]

I agree but I sense a

 

vibe from the OP's question.

[tsecor]

I may be in the top 5 fans of McIlroy but his short game is pathetic right now. His putting may not be up to any of our levels.....his wedge game has been suspect since the shutdown as well so, he has a ways to get back to # 1....is he capable? yea, but he needs to stop with the birdie birdie birdie runs followed by double double routine...prior to the shutdown, he was borderline dominant with a real chance of winning 2 majors this year.....the covid shutdown really hurt Rory.

[bladehunter]

Personally I don’t think he ever had been. DJ is if he’s in full flight. But I don’t know if we’ll see that again.

[widow-maker]

I think Rory puts a lot of pressure on himself going into these majors. I'm not sure what the answer is. He needs to find his killer instinct. He drifts at times. Maybe a caddie that will tell him what's up instead of having his childhood friend on the bag. He needs work on his flighted wedges but his short game around the greens is pretty impeccable. His putting comes and goes but that's the same as everybody else. He seems to have most of the pieces but these young guys don't seem to be afraid of anybody and they aren't going away.

[adl300]

JT and rory are too inconsistent with their putting to be considered #1. I don't think golf will have a clear cut #1 after tiger retires.

[johnseg]

I think we are in another Greg Norman era myself. A lot of good players but none significantly better than the rest of the field. As others have said I too think there are about a half a dozen you could throw a blanket over.

Majors are interestingly consistent for the most part. I started at 1960 and looked at each decade (40 championships)

60's - 3 repeats accounting for 17 wins (Arnie, Jack, Player)

70's - 7 repeats accounting for 24 wins (Jack, Trevino, Player, Miller, Irwin, Watson, Stockton)

80's - 8 repeats accounting for 23 wins (Jack, Watson, Seve, Nelson, Strange, Lyle, Faldo)

90's - 8 repeats accounting for 19 wins (Faldo, Price, Olazabal, Els, Janzen, Daly, O'Meara, Tiger)

00's - 6 repeats accounting for 23 wins (Tiger, Phil, Padraig, Vijay, Goosen, Cabrerra)

10's - 6 repeats accounting for 17 wins (Rory, Koepka, Spieth, Phil, Bubba, Kaymer)

I'm not sure what this shows other than almost every decade the same number of guys are winning multiple majors.

[Jackhammer993]

I would say at this time it’s JT. It’s not by a wide margin but he wins more than Rahm and has been more consistent than Rory. If Colin keeps going he may be. The one variable is the no crowd factor. Some of these guys play much better with nobody watching them while other get energy off of it.

[rafal]

Justin Thomas has this hunger in him that I don't see with Rory or Fowler or any of these other guys. Deshambou also has that hunger but he's a bit wacko. (is shaming BD and/or hurting his brand allowed?)

[Blade Junkie]

Rory just sneaks into the top 16 in terms of OWGR points gained in 2020 ...

Morikawa is now top of the heap, ahead of Bryson ...

 

[MattyO1984]

I assume that everyone is doing that same as me looking at that list - seeing the name Kevin Streelman and thinking HOW?!

[ColinKelvin]

I don't think there is a clear #1 just now, at all. This is a really interesting interim period where there are lots of contenders, as the PGA leaderboard just showed.
Rory's weird claim a while back that he'd always win over 100 rounds (?!) also seems a) dodgy and b) irrelevant when his major drought is now 6 years and counting. Rory McIlroy: 'I had to take a long, hard look at myself after Portrush'“I am obviously good enough, I can win World Golf Championships and FedEx Cups. If we played 100-round tournaments I would come out on top every time as shown by my stroke average, strokes gained and stats. But tournaments are over four. It’s putting those four together.”
Lol.

[cdnglf]

What Rory said makes perfect sense.

[tsecor]

There is no #1...its just a revolving door....the PGA is headed in the wrong direction if you ask me.....we need rivals, we need scoring improvements, we need a dominant figure...we dont need 350 yard drives, 400 yard drives....we need skills...not driver-wedge, driver 9 iron shots....the PGA is so boring to me right now....but Rory may be the most talented but his short game is horrible right now

[aenemated]

For me, it can be summed up with a shot I hit last Friday. 

 

75 yard wedge from the middle of the fairway after a perfect drive, completely ate it with my distance control and blew it 30 feet past the hole. And immediately mumbled to myself "Nice one, Rors."

 

I love the guy but yeah ... 

[MMB1500]

Not even close. When was the last time he genuinely contended in a major, say on the back 9 on Sunday? 

 

Rory has become a master at shooting himself out of tournaments and getting in his own way. He has admitted himself that he wishes he could still play with the carefree abandon he did in his youth. 

 

IMO he's too mentally fragile, overthinks things and hasn't done enough to improve the weak parts of his game (wedges and putting). He's now been left behind by a bunch of other players who can legitimately be considered to be better than him. 

Edited August 19, 2020 by MMB1500