Rory McIlroy's dueling 67s to open the 2024 Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship may appear to be business as usual, but they have been anything but. Revealing earlier in the week that he locked himself inside his studio for three weeks to reshape his golf swing ahead of this tournament, McIlroy appears to have hit the reset button amid another strong season.
"It felt OK," McIlroy said this week. "Yeah, sort of gotten comfortable with doing this little rehearsal before I take the club back. Yeah, it felt fine. I probably wasn't as imaginative out there, or I was sort of hitting very straight shots and I hit a couple where I didn't really see the picture of what I was trying to do with the ball flight because I was thinking too much on what I was doing with the swing.
"Overall, I'm quite fortunate that it's a nice week to come back because there's not too much wind. It's pretty wide off the tee. So, I feel like I can concentrate a little bit more on what I'm trying to do with the motion."
Statistically speaking, McIlroy has like his normal self this week. He has largely taken care of the par 5s with his wedges factoring out to be less-than-stellar, which is not abnormal. Across 36 holes, he has registered 14 birdies compared to one bogey and a surprising triple -- both on the par-3 17th hole.
McIlroy presently sits 10 under, tied for 14th and nine shots back of Paul Waring, who has a five stroke lead at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.
Aesthetically speaking, McIlroy's swing does look slightly different. Emphasizing the takeaway through rehearsals, which aims to keep his hands in line with the club head, the 35-year-old is less across the line at the top, more on plan. That should lead to a healthy diet of fades as a standard shot shape.
"I probably haven't liked the shape of my golf swing for a while, especially the backswing," McIlroy said earlier this week. "The only way I was going to make a change or at least move in the right direction with my swing was to lock myself in a studio and not see the ball flight for a bit and just focus entirely on the movement. So, did that for three weeks after the Dunhill. Started to get outside and hit some shots last week and see how it is. I'm terrible at if I'm trying to make a certain swing or a certain swing change, and [if] I start to misstrike it or not hit the shots that I want, I'll just revert back to what I was doing because it's comfortable.
"Doing this in the studio, it was a big key for me to just try to make a start on getting the swing back to where I want it to be. But it's an ongoing process, as you know, to get out here and play. When there's sequences to the shots that you hit, you're always going to revert back to what's comfortable. Hopefully, the more that I do over these next few months, it will bed in and get back to the shape I want to be in."
McIlroy's swing changes won't materialize for some time, but it is interesting to see him make the move. While his wedge play and putting have often been labeled culprits for his major championship shortcomings in recent years, his ball striking shouldn't be left off the hook entirely.
At this year's U.S. Open, McIlroy, of course, missed those two short putts down the stretch. He also missed four out of his last five greens in regulation after taking the solo lead.
Could this slight change on the takeaway lead to a change in his final-round fortunes in major championships? Only time will tell.