Rory McIlroy and Leona Maguire can change the narrative and turn rollercoaster seasons into memorable campaigns starting this week.
After near misses in the US Open and the Olympics, McIlroy knows he has a chance to “flip the script” in the BMW Championship in Denver and close the gap on leaders Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele heading to next week’s season-ending Tour Championship in Atlanta.
While he’s won twice on the PGA Tour this year, the Co Down has played second fiddle to Scheffler and Schauffele for most of the season.
A win in the second playoff event at Castle Pines Golf Club — measuring a whopping 8,130 yards but playing far shorter due to its altitude of over 6,000 ft — would be just the tonic for the McIlroy, who was tied 68th in last week’s 70-man FedEx St Jude Championship.
“I think when the bulk of the season has come and gone and you’ve got this opportunity of three weeks to really flip the script a little bit or change the narrative of what that season means,” McIlroy said last week as he targeted a fourth FedEx Cup win.
The four-time major champion will have to drive the ball better than he did in Memphis, where he lost 3.99 strokes off the tee — the second most of his career in a PGA Tour event — and nearly two strokes on the greens.
With only the top 30 in the standings progressing to the Tour Championship in Atlanta next week, fifth-ranked McIlroy and 11th-ranked Shane Lowry will be looking to move up and boost their chances of winning that $25 million FedEx Cup bonus.
It’s also a big week for Maguire (29) in the AIG Women’s Open at St Andrews, where she can take home $1,425,000 if she wins her first major title.
The purse has been increased by $500,000 to $9.5 million and with rain and strong winds expected to be a major factor, the Co Cavan star will be hoping she gets the luck of the draw.
Like McIlroy, she’s had her share of success this season, winning the LET’s Aramco Team Series event in London and finishing runner-up to world number one Nelly Korda in the LPGA’s T-Mobile Match Play in Las Vegas.
But she’s also had her struggles, missing the cut in three of the four majors before illness left her dead last of the finishers in the Olympics in Paris.
She’s one of the grittiest bad-weather players in the game, but it remains to be seen if she has the form to contend.
She’s ranked 246th for strokes gained off the tee on the US circuit this season, and that’s a worry at the Old Course, where avoiding the bunkers is key.
The world number 32 is joined in St Andrews by qualifier Stephanie Meadow and Kildare’s Lauren Walsh, who is making her professional debut in a major looking to put the cherry atop a sensational rookie season.
On the DP World Tour, Tom McKibbin and Gary Hurley play the Danish Golf Championship as Conor Purcell, Jonathan Caldwell, Dermot McElroy, Mark Power, Conor O’Rourke and Alex Maguire tee it up in the Indoor Golf Group Challenge in Sweden.
Meanwhile, Roganstown’s Sean Keeling (17) confirmed he will join fellow amateur Max Kennedy in next month’s Amgen Irish Open at Royal County Down.
“It’s a dream come true,” Keeling said. “Should be an amazing experience.”
