Rory McIlroy

[Orior]

Rory is 3 over the cut line with 8 holes to play.

Orior's Advice: Cut 2 inches off the length of all your new clubs Rory. In that way you can fit them in the rubbish bin.

[Hardy]

Radio 1 sports news says Rory has ditched his Nike putter today.

[offtheground]

Only two rounds in anger with new equipment, so too early to make any big statements about the effect of his nike equipment. Remember his 'dip' in performance before the PGA last year??

Interesting to compare his stats for the past few years to the stats for this event.

Average Driving distance ;
Year   -   Yards   
2007 - 285.63
2008 - 295.29
2009 - 301.38
2010 - 301.33
2011 - 300.88
2012 - 301.89
Abu Dhabi 2013 - 289yrds

Driving accuracy

Year   - %
2007 - 63.37
2008 - 56.78
2009 - 62.96
2010 - 60.72
2011 - 63.12
2012 - 60.71
Abu Dhabi 2013 - 35.7%

As i said - its too early for any big statements, but he has work to do to get back to his usual performance off the Tee box, and thats not even mentioning his putting.

http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/players/playerid=34024/statistics/index.html - 2007 - 2012 stats

http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2013/tournamentid=2013005/news/newsid=183101.html - Abu Dhabi 2013 stats

[GAA_Talk]

Both Woods and Rory miss cut.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/golf/21084605

[thebigfella]

Only two rounds in anger with new equipment, so too early to make any big statements about the effect of his nike equipment. Remember his 'dip' in performance before the PGA last year??

Interesting to compare his stats for the past few years to the stats for this event.

Average Driving distance ;
Year   -   Yards   
2007 - 285.63
2008 - 295.29
2009 - 301.38
2010 - 301.33
2011 - 300.88
2012 - 301.89
Abu Dhabi 2013 - 289yrds


Driving accuracy

Year   - %
2007 - 63.37
2008 - 56.78
2009 - 62.96
2010 - 60.72
2011 - 63.12
2012 - 60.71
Abu Dhabi 2013 - 35.7%

As i said - its too early for any big statements, but he has work to do to get back to his usual performance off the Tee box, and thats not even mentioning his putting.

http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/players/playerid=34024/statistics/index.html - 2007 - 2012 stats

http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2013/tournamentid=2013005/news/newsid=183101.html - Abu Dhabi 2013 stats

Usually the driving distance are measured on a couple of holes to calculate the average. All it takes is for one bad drive on these holes and the average driving distance doesn't look so good. For today's round his average driving distance was 302.5 yards, not too shabby 

He's been under the media spotlight for the last few weeks due to the equipment change. Certainly there will be a bit of pressure from that and to deliver for Nike. I agree with the guys on Sky Sports, his timing just looks a bit off and this maybe a consequence of the added pressure. The bad shots he hit yesterday are just woeful swings; even with his old titleist clubs they still would have been woeful.

Judging by the number of putts he left short yesterday and having to get used to the new ball; I do think swapping the putter was a mistake. Glad to see he has no contractual obligation to use the Nike putter, even though the new method putters are pretty sweet.

[Orior]

What the heck is a method putter?

[AQMP]

What the heck is a method putter?

One belonging to Robert De Niro ??

[dec]

What the heck is a method putter?

http://www.nike.com/nikeos/p/nikegolf/en_US/experiences/method-putters

[Bingo]

Rory not having a good day, seven over on his ninth (18th on course), puts ball in water and walks off course citing a toothache as the cause of his problem and woes.

Are the Nike clubs that hard to use?

[Puckoon]

The rumor mill is that Tiger convinced him to switch so that he would struggle with the "inferior equipment" and not be such a threat.

Or maybe Tiger really is swinging a "Big Dog" and Caroline isn't happy with Rory's performance.

[AQMP]

Stephen Watson receiving counselling.

[Christmas Lights]

Probably misses his old glasses.

[Saffrongael]

toothache ? What a warrior.

[never kickt a ball]

Teething problems according to Mark Sidebottom

[Onion Bag]

Rory not having a good day, seven over on his ninth (18th on course), puts ball in water and walks off course citing a toothache as the cause of his problem and woes.

Are the Nike clubs that hard to use?

A bad work man always blames his tools