This is not the sort of week you spend pretending everything is fine. Rory McIlroy arrived at Bellerive Country Club fresh off finishing 66th out of 68 players at the FedEx St. Jude Championship, and the response was as direct as it was revealing: more work, more balls, and a modified grip setup that he believes can unlock his swing again.
That is the real story at Bellerive Golf Course. Not just the six-under 64 on Thursday, not just the 69 on Friday, but the fact that McIlroy has treated this playoff stretch like a repair job. He worked at home in Florida on Monday with Michael Bannon and Harry Diamond, then hit 313 balls on the range at Bellerive Country Club on Tuesday and Wednesday. That is not casual fine-tuning. That is a player trying to grind the bad habits out of his game before they cost him something bigger.
A grip change with a clear purpose
McIlroy said he has “definitely gotten into some bad habits” over the past few months, and his answer has been to simplify the feel of the swing and support the right arm better. He explained that the modified grip helps the right arm work better, gives the club more structure at the top, and leaves him feeling like he can “really hit whatever shot” he wants. That is the kind of language golfers use when a technical change suddenly makes the whole motion feel less fragile.
He also made it plain that this was not some one-off fix. He said he needs to engrain the feeling and “hit a ton of balls” while doing it. Again, that is the point. This is not a player searching for a magic trick. This is a player trying to build a new habit through repetition, and doing it in the middle of a high-stakes event because the previous week went badly enough to demand urgency.
The numbers say this was no light touch
Three hundred and thirteen balls on the range is a serious workload, especially after a poor finish the week before. Add in the Monday session in Florida with Michael Bannon and Harry Diamond, and it becomes obvious that McIlroy did not want to drift into the BMW Championship hoping form would just reappear. He attacked the problem head-on.
That approach has already produced something usable. A six-under 64 on Thursday is a proper reset, and a 69 on Friday kept him in the fight as he began the third round five strokes behind Wyndham Clark. He is still chasing, but at least he is chasing with a swing setup he believes gives him more control and more freedom.
That is what makes the grip story matter. In golf, especially at this level, equipment changes are never just equipment changes. They are a sign that a player has identified something structural and is trying to fix it before the margin disappears completely. McIlroy’s custom grip on the lob wedge and 7-iron is not a headline-grabbing gimmick. It is a sign of work, frustration, and urgency all at once.
And for a player who had just stumbled through the FedEx St. Jude Championship, that is exactly the sort of response you want to see. Not panic. Not excuses. A problem identified, a practice week stacked on top of it, and a willingness to make the swing feel different if that is what it takes to get back to a level he trusts.
