Rory McIlroy’s triumph at the 2025 Masters was one of the most emotional and widely celebrated victories in recent golf history. Completing the elusive career Grand Slam, the Northern Irishman silenced critics and etched his name alongside the greats of the game. While the win seemed like a turning point, a few months on, some analysts are beginning to question whether McIlroy’s form is slipping again, particularly because of a flaw in his swing that he managed to correct before the Masters.

On a recent episode of the Indo Sport podcast hosted by Joe, veteran golf analyst Brandel Chamblee offered a pointed diagnosis of McIlroy’s current struggles. While praising McIlroy’s Masters performance and acknowledging the unique affection fans and players have for him, Chamblee observed that McIlroy has ‘slipped back into a bad habit‘ he had managed to overcome prior to Augusta. Chamblee noted that McIlroy’s “game has fallen off a lot since then,” and specifically highlighted his iron play — “You know, his iron play was marvelous going into the Masters, and now his iron play has fallen off a lot.”

While Chamblee speculated that the drop in performance might be psychological — “You don’t know if it’s the letdown from having won the career grand slam or the controversy that ensued,” he even pointed out the technical flaw in his swing that could be one of the reasons. “But his swing has changed a little bit since the Masters. It’s more, it drops to the inside now. He has these moments where the club, just in transition, drops to the inside. When it does, he hits a lot of wild shots to the right and a lot of pulls with his irons to the left. And going into the Masters, he had sorted that out. He wasn’t doing that,” he said. According to Chamblee, McIlroy had cleaned up the issue of coming over the top in his downswing, which can lead to inconsistent ball striking, leading into the Masters. While McIlroy follows the one-piece takeaway in his backswing, his club dropping to the inside during transition has once again become a liability.

“He had a little cup in his wrist. The club was more down the line, and he was not getting stuck on the inside. But ever since the Masters, you know, it’s like if you’ve got these little faults and you take your eye off the ball or your focus just diminishes a little bit, you revert back to your bad habits. And that’s where he’s at with his golf swing,” Chamblee continued to add. This adjustment allowed McIlroy to keep his ball-striking sharp, avoiding the big misses that had plagued him in the past. But post-Masters, the technical fault has returned, leading to inconsistent iron play that has cost him dearly in recent outings. And the stats back it up. Despite being ranked 2nd in the overall strokes gained, McIlroy ranks 67th on the strokes gained from approach to green.

Chamblee highlighted that McIlroy’s non-conforming driver controversy at the PGA Championship, coupled with the emotional release of achieving a lifelong goal, may have caused McIlroy to loosen his focus just enough to let bad habits resurface. While McIlroy has still produced strong finishes, and if he wants to remain a serious threat to Scottie Scheffler, he’ll need to address this recurring flaw before it turns into a long-term setback.

McIlroy needs to fix this habit to keep pace with Scottie Scheffler

After the Masters, McIlroy went into a sudden slump. While he did have a top 10 finish at the 2025 Truist Championship, he finished 47th at Quail Hollow and missed the cut at the RBC Canadian Open after carding one of the worst scores in his career (8-over on the second day). But he’s trying to recover since then and the tied 19th finish at Oakmont. The last three events, he’s consistently finished within the top 10, including a runner-up finish at the Scottish Open, where Chris Gotterup edged him out.

But as Brandel Chamblee highlighted, if McIlroy doesn’t fix the issue in his swing, it’ll be a long time until we see him win again. It will also make it difficult for him to compete with someone like Scheffler, who continues to set the standard with his relentless consistency and precision. “Yeah. I mean, he just he can’t hit it good enough at the moment to compete with Scottie. He’s got to get it sorted out. And it looked like to me like on Sunday he was a little bit better, but he still is prone to two, three, four wild shots around. And you’re just not gonna beat Scottie doing that,” Chamblee pointed out. Unless McIlroy finds a way to recalibrate his swing and reclaim the precision that won him the green jacket, Chamblee believes he may fall short of sustaining his place at the top.