<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n
Final-round tee times have been adjusted for the Genesis Scottish Open because of dense sea fog Sunday morning.<\/p>\n
On the surface, one could point to the driver, which McIlroy had to replace after his old one failed its CT test ahead of the PGA. But it\u2019s been McIlroy\u2019s approach play losing strokes more than any other facet. And in general, not seeing shots and balls going through the right windows added to whatever McIlroy was already dealing with as part of his Masters hangover.<\/p>\n
And yet, somehow, that all seems like forever ago.<\/p>\n
McIlroy was asked on Saturday evening if he was having fun playing competitive golf again. He downplayed that notion.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think when you\u2019re playing the way you want to play and the ball is coming out of the window that you\u2019re looking, that\u2019s certainly more enjoyable than if it\u2019s not,\u201d McIlroy said.<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s clearly more to all this. McIlroy spoke earlier this week about the sense of detachment from the grind of the PGA Tour when one arrives in the U.K. for links season. He\u2019s since given that thought more credence. He proclaimed himself at about 80% following Thursday\u2019s first-round 68, where he shook off some rust with three straight birdies to end his day. He\u2019s not had any big misses with the big stick, either.<\/p>\n
Finally, everything is coming together once again \u2013 and just in time for Portrush, where McIlroy will undoubtedly have to keep those recent demons down if he wants his redemption in front of the home fans.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I\u2019m pretty close to being back to the level I was at going into the Masters,\u201d McIlroy said. \u201cI think I\u2019ve had a little bit of a lull, which I feel is understandable. So, I\u2019m just getting back to the level that I know that I can play at.\u201d<\/p>\n
And what about the haircut?<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m getting a little gray, as everyone probably knows, and I stupidly thought that by going shorter, it would take the grays out,\u201d McIlroy said. \u201cAnd if anything, I think it makes me look more gray.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it will grow back, that\u2019s the good thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
As such things often do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New do, renewed Rory? It sure seems so. Rory McIlroy arrived at the Renaissance Club in North Berwick,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5200,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":["post-5199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5199\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}