Rory McIlroy has teamed up with Worldwide Golf columnist Pete Cowen after missing the cut at The Players Championship.
McIlroy has sought help from Cowen in recent weeks at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the Players Championship and will now have the Englishman on board in a more official capacity.
The Master PGA Professional will be an addition to McIlroy’s ‘performance team’, which also includes putting coach Brad Faxon and Michael Bannon, who has been McIlroy’s coach since he was a young boy.
Cowen, who has academies at Emirates Golf Club, Jumeirah Golf Estates and Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club, is recognised as one of the world’s elite teaching professionals with over over 200 main European Tour and PGA Tour victories as a coach.
This includes being at the helm when the likes of Henrik Stenson, Brooks Koepka, Louis Oosthuizen, Graeme McDowell, Gary Woodland and Danny Willett have tasted Major Championship glory.
McIlroy will be hoping Cowen can continue that trend as the Northern Irishman looks to add to his Major tally for the first time since victory at the 2014 PGA Championship.
Copying Bryson
The 31-year-old is without a win since the 2019 WGC-HSBC Championships and has struggled with his form since returning from golf’s hiatus which saw him drop to 11th in the world.
After missing the cut earlier this month at The Players Championship, McIlroy admitted that he got caught up in chasing more distance off the tee, despite being one of the longest hitters in the game.
“I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t anything to do with what Bryson did at the U.S. Open,” said McIlroy. “I think a lot of people saw that and were like, ‘Whoa, if this is the way they’re going to set golf courses up in the future, it helps. It really helps.’
“I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t anything to do with what Bryson did at the U.S. Open.”
Rory McIlroy discusses his quest for more speed and the swing issues he’s been struggling with as a result. pic.twitter.com/mFWJmuaZDT
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 13, 2021
“The one thing that people don’t appreciate is how good Bryson is out of the rough. Not only because of how upright he is but because his short irons are longer than standard, so he can get a little more speed through the rough than us, than other guys.
“And I thought being able to get some more speed is a good thing, and I maybe just — to the detriment of a little bit of my swing, I got there, but I just need to maybe rein it back in a little bit.”
