Rory McIlroy's problem is bigger than a wonky driver at U.S. Open

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OAKMONT, Pa. — Staring down the barrel of a somewhat terrifying U.S. Open test, Rory McIlroy was back at his best in front of the microphone on Tuesday, but whether he’ll be back at his best on the course anytime soon is a very different question.

“Look, you dream about the final putt going in at the Masters, but you don’t think about what comes next,” he said on Tuesday at Oakmont.

Following one of the worst performances of his career last week at the RBC Canadian Open, McIlroy announced he will be using yet another new driver this week. As one of the game’s all-time greatest drivers of the golf ball, there is no doubt he will sort out this equipment issue relatively quickly.

The more difficult puzzle for Rory is going to be figuring out what he wants next for himself, and how much he still wants from the game of golf that he has dedicated so much of his life mastering.

Completing his lifelong ambition of the career grand slam at Augusta National has unsurprisingly left a void. McIlroy was asked about the plan for the next phase of his career, and one of golf’s great talkers was left nearly speechless.

“I don’t have one. I have no idea,” he answered. “I’m sort of just taking it tournament by tournament at this point. Yeah, I have no idea.”

Rory answered some questions about his new driver, including a great quip on what he learned about the driver he used in Canada: “I learned that I wasn’t using the right driver.”

Eventually, the conversation drifted back to the deeper issue of motivation, and where ones mind goes when they look up from the top of the mountain and see nothing.

“I think I’ve always been a player that struggles to play after a big event, after I win whatever tournament. I always struggle to show up with motivation the next week because you’ve just accomplished something and you want to enjoy it and you want to sort of relish the fact that you’ve achieved a goal.”

“I think chasing a certain goal for the better part of a decade and a half, I think I’m allowed a little bit of time to relax a little bit.”

Most athletes feel the emptiness after they retire, but the funny thing about golf is it never really ends. Jack Nicklaus is still at the Masters hitting tee shots and weighing in on the game. Rory’s childhood dream was to win all four majors. That’s done, so what’s next?

“Just trying to find the motivation to go back out there and work as hard as I’ve been working,” he said when asked about the challenges he has faced since Augusta. “At some point, you have to realize that there’s a little bit more golf left to play this season, here, (Open Championship at) Portrush, Ryder Cup, so those are obviously the three big things.”

There’s always been a vulnerability to McIlroy, one that he’s been willing to share far more than most great athletes. The past few years have tested that openness as he shouldered much of the load, and took most of the arrows, as the undisputed face of the PGA Tour during the early days of its war with LIV Golf.

Watching Rory these days, there seems to be an inner battle between his desire to stay true to his personality and the colder understanding that sometimes the best way to keep ugliness out of your life is to close the door and lock it.

“Basically saying no to every request that comes in, trying to get home as much as possible, and trying to do the things that I enjoy,” McIlroy said of his post-Masters life. “That was one of my goals for this year was to have more fun, and that’s what I’m trying to do.”

Some of it is just life and maturity as a man with a young family, as he mentioned taking trips and allowing his daughter Poppy to see the world. But, inside some of his recent comments there also is a common thread that he feels he has earned the right to turn off public Rory, that for all that he has given the game, and in some respect the media, everyone should understand if he doesn’t want to talk after rounds four days in a row.

He might not be wrong, but he brought much of it on himself offering a career full of captivating public introspection. Tiger Woods talked a lot but gave nothing. Rory couldn’t do that. He wants to tell you how he’s feeling and what he thinks. And it doesn’t seem to come from a desperate need for affirmation like we see at times from Bryson DeChambeau, but seemingly from a real desire to convey his humanity, perhaps mixed with a slight pleasure at hearing the sound of his own voice.

Toward the end, McIlroy was asked how he seems so at ease in front of a mic in these somewhat-awkward staged back and forths with media.

“Probably because I love myself and I love golf,” he said with a grin. “I’m pretty comfortable talking about both of those things.”