AUGUSTA, Ga. — Rory McIlroy lost control of his golf swing on Saturday at Augusta National. I wrote that evening that the only way he'd win the 2026 Masters was if he figured out a way to get it back.
Shortly after he finished his round, he went straight to the driving range, and did exactly that.
Draped in a green jacket 24 hours later, McIlroy explained what he found out.
The Problem
Adam Glanzman
Rory started missing shots to the left with alarming frequency during his third round. With his driver, it was alternating blocks and uncontrollable overdraws.
With his irons, they were more like pulls.
It was the product of McIlroy's spin axis turning negative for the first time of the week—meaning his clubface was more closed than it had been. This combined with a club path that was also moving too far out to the right was causing him a world of trouble. His swing was moving right, his hands were shutting down the clubface and pointing it left, and the results weren't good.
"My path was just getting a little bit too far to the right with every club in the bag. So I was just hitting too much of a draw. Then when the path is coming from that far inside, if you don't keep your body moving at all, the ball is just going to go dead left."
How he fixed it
J.D. Cuban
The goal was to get the clubface a little more open, and to swing a little more left.
The way Rory did this was simple:
"I focused on hitting like quite a few cut shots, focused on really trying to open up my lower body through impact. When I do that, it helps me stabilize the club face and start the ball more on line with more of a neutral flight."
By feeling like he was opening up his lower body, he was preventing his hands from taking over.
And by practicing hitting more cut shots, he was pulling his swing direction more to the left.
The results were immediate: The spin axis of Rory's shots shifted from about -1 degree in his morning range session to -0.28 degrees during his evening session. The next morning, was almost identical: -0.3 degrees.
His goal on Saturday was to neutralize his ball flight. The numbers prove he did.
His goal on Sunday was to slip on the green jacket. He did that, too.