Already knowing that Jack’s Place has been a little frustrating for him to dominate, Rory McIlroy knew winning against a loaded field wouldn’t come easy. His final round 68 at the Memorial offered reasons for encouragement, but Muirfield Village exposed one area of his game that became a trouble for himself: his driver.

“I get a little bit underneath the plane on the way down, and then from there I try to drag the handle to match it up, and then I get toe strikes,” McIlroy told the media at Muirfield. “Then the toe strikes are—like, if I’m aiming a touch left trying to hit a cut and I get a touch underneath it and then I try to save it by dragging the handle, I hit it off the toe, and then it goes left.”

“But then if I try to hit with one with a draw or pretty neutral, I’ll still get a little bit underneath it, and I’ll release it, and it will overturn a little bit. But I have to try to get the club back out in front of me. But then, when it gets out in front of me, if I do get it there, then it’s about having the right release pattern on the way through.”

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After answering, McIlroy realized that the reporter looked “very confused,” and to this, the reporter replied, “I’m limited.” Then came McIlroy’s almost poetic realization about his driving ability:

“I feel limited at the minute, too,” the two-time major winner responded.

At the memorial, he hit only 30 of 56 fairways and still ranked 11th in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee. But he was four percent off his accuracy, according to Data Golf, and that’s what matters to him. While he was impressed with his iron play, short game, and putting, he also knows his driver needs to work before teeing off at the US Open because while McIlroy’s driving ability is widely considered his superpower, it has been a recurring soft spot this year.

At the 2026 PGA Championship at Aronimink, in the first round, he just hit five fairways. It was the right miss that troubled him. He missed the right of the fairway on the first, fourth, sixth, seventh, and ninth holes. He was visibly frustrated by how the day had gone.

“I’m not just driving the ball well enough. It’s been a problem for the most part all year. I miss it, and then I want to try to correct it. Then I’ll overdo it, and I’ll miss it left. It’s a bit of back-and-forth that way. So that’s pretty frustrating, especially when like, I pride myself on driving the ball well.”

At Augusta National earlier this year, he kept facing a similar struggle with his driver for the first three days. Surprisingly, he ranked 90th out of 91 players over the first two rounds in driving accuracy. He worked to improve his driving ability on Saturday evening.

His goal was to open the clubface a little more, and for this, he focused on hitting quite a few cut shots and tried to open up his lower body through impact, as it helps him stabilize the clubface and start the ball more in line with more of a neutral flight. It helped as he won his second Masters.

For the US Open, he has already visited Shinnecock Hills and has noted that the fairways there are a little wider. Now, McIlroy will spend some time in England, and from there, on Saturday, he will fly to Westhampton. However, he already has a plan for the next two weeks:

“Just try to keep getting a little bit better each and every day heading into Shinnecock.”