Rory McIlroy showcases remarkable form recovery at the 2023 Memorial Tournament

Rory McIlroy’s 2023 season has been rather mediocre so far. Looking to change his luck, McIlroy entered as the third favorite golfer at the 2023 Memorial Tournament at the Muirfield Village Golf Club. The Jack Nicklaus course is known to be a hard one to get around and it has been evident throughout the weekend.

Rory McIlroy’s first round was less than ideal, to say the least. McIlroy’s round was going well until he triple-bogeyed on the very last hole to finish at par 72. He went seven on the par 4 18th hole, hacking his way through the deep rough. It took him four shots to find the green.

His second round, however, went a lot better. The World No. 3 golfer carded a 68, which was four under par. Speaking about his performance so far, McIlroy said (via the Herald):

“I felt good about everything that I did yesterday. I got one bad break on 18 with that ball finishing on the bank of the bunker. So I really feel like I’m one shot out of leading this golf tournament.”

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Rory McIlroy’s remarkable comeback at the 2023 Memorial Tournament

After the second round, McIlroy stood four shots off the sole leader Justin Suh ahead of the third round. McIlroy hoped that if he were to land in that awkward bunker again for the 18th hole, he would be able to finish the shot in four shots instead of seven.

“I felt like I did a lot of really good things yesterday and I did a lot of good things right, so I can’t let that one sort of unlucky break sort of hide the fact that everything else was working pretty well,” Rory McIlroy said.

However, Rory McIlroy’s comeback has been tainted by a rather average season and doubts about him winning the Memorial Tournament are prevalent.

Speaking about McIlroy’s 2023 season, Jack Nicklaus said:

“I don’t know whether his is a constant lack of being able to keep that concentration for the whole thing or not, because sometimes he (goes) par, par, par, double, eight. He does that sometimes.”