Rory McIlroy served up an interesting menu at the US PGA Championship past champions’ dinner on Tuesday and would love his critics to be eating humble pie this weekend.
McIlroy won five times last year, including his second major by eight shots, to finish top of the money list on both sides of the Atlantic.
He has yet to record a win this year, however, and labelled his own play “brain dead” after an opening round of 79 in the Open at Muirfield, where he missed the cut on 12 over par.
Switching clubs in a controversial multi-million-pound deal with Nike and spending too much time with girlfriend Caroline Wozniacki have been blamed for such poor form but McIlroy went through a similar “slump” last year just before leavingeveryone trailing in his wake at Kiawah Island.
“I love proving people wrong,” the 24-year-old said in his pre-tournament press conference.
“I loved sitting up here last year on the Sunday night and I proved a lot of people wrong. Maybe not necessarily in this room but just people who had their opinions and said things and it was nice to be able to do that.
“I guess I’ve learnt to maybe not listen as much or not read as much, just sort of wrap yourself in your own little world or your own little bubble.”
Previous wins could also be key to future success, with McIlroy watching footage of his performance at Kiawah Island and other career highlights to get back into the right frame of mind.
“I’m feeling good,” the World No 3 added. “I’ve been watching a few videos of last year at Kiawah and watching some videos of some of my best weeks that I’ve played and it sort of lifted me a little bit and I took some good things away from that.
“First and foremost, I just haven’t been swinging it the best this year. I got into a couple of bad habits with my golf swing and it’s just taken me a little bit longer to get out of them.
“When you’re fighting that so much, it’s hard to play the golf that I want to play, which is fluid and free-flowing. That’s the way I play my best.
“I think everyone sees when I walk and I’m playing well, I have that little bounce in my step, so just trying to get that going again and trying to get that positive energy back.
“There’s been times this year where I’ve really gotten down on myself and that’s something that hasn’t helped at all, and something that I’m trying to get better at.”
As for that dinner menu, McIlroy opted for a goat’s cheese and beetroot salad to start, Irish tenderloin for the main course and sticky toffee pudding for dessert.
“Everyone definitely enjoyed the last two courses; I don’t know how the appetiser went down,” he joked.
Meanwhile 99 of the world’s top 100 will contest this week’s championship at Oak Hill, in Rochester, New York and more than one of them may even finish under par.
In the last two majors only one player, Open champion Phil Mickelson, has finished in red figures but tournament officials insist they are not fixated on what the winning total should be.
“I think if you talk to any of the players that have played in the championship over the years, they love this set-up,” PGA of America president Ted Bishop said.
“They know there’s going to be challenges and they know that at the same time they are going to have a chance to go out and be aggressive and make some birdies on some holes.
“I think the great thing about the PGA Championship is we have never gotten caught up in what the under par score is going to be to win this championship.”