Rory McIlroy Takes a Lesson From Butch Harmon Leading Up to the Masters

Before trying yet again to complete the career Grand Slam, the Ulsterman made a stop in Las Vegas.

David Yeazell-USA TODAY Sports

As Rory McIlroy left home last week, his young daughter Poppy was baffled by the idea of Dad going to get a golf lesson. Doesn’t he know how to play golf already?

Sure, but Dad has a pretty big work trip next week and this was no ordinary lesson.

McIlroy told the I Can Fly podcast that he went to Las Vegas last week for a visit with legendary teacher Butch Harmon, just to tighten things up with the Masters coming up next week–the one major standing between the Ulsterman and the career Grand Slam.

“I’ve done this a number of times in my career,” McIlroy said Wednesday at the Valero Texas Open. “I met Butch when I was 14 years old, so we’ve always had a good relationship. If there’s one guy I want to go and get a second opinion from, it’s him.”

McIlroy said at the start of the year that he would play more than usual in order to be sharp for Augusta National, and last month played in three of the four events on the PGA Tour’s Florida Swing. But he shot a final-round 76 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational to finish T21 and followed that with a T19 at the Players Championship, fighting his swing along the way.

Rory McIlroy finished T19 at the Players Championship. / David Yeazell-USA TODAY Sports

“Just after the Players and just sort of struggling through that Florida Swing with my swing and with some of the misses I was having with my irons, I thought to myself I’m obviously missing something here and I just would love to go and get a second opinion and have him take a look, a second set of eyes,” McIlroy said. 

“The one thing with Butch is you go spend time with him and you're always going to feel better about yourself at the end of it whether you're hitting it better or not. He's sort of half golf coach, half psychologist in a way. It's fun to go out there, I went and spent probably four hours with him in Vegas.

“He said a couple of things to me that resonated. It's the same stuff that I've been trying to do with my coach Michael (Bannon), but he sort of just said it in a different way that maybe hit home with me a little bit more.”

The Valero Texas Open will provide instant feedback on the four hours with Harmon. McIlroy, runner-up at TPC San Antonio in his last appearance in 2013, said it’s a good course that requires him to make committed swings.

This week will be his first of four straight on Tour, with the final two being the signature event RBC Heritage and the Zurich Classic of New Orleans two-man team tournament, where he’ll play with fellow Irishman Shane Lowry.

But all the focus will be next week at Augusta National, given McIlroy’s quest for the career Grand Slam and a majors drought now entering a 10th year. He missed the cut at the Masters last year.

“Good golf at Augusta feels like boring golf and I think that's something that I've always struggled with because that's not my game,” McIlroy said. “It's the biggest test of discipline and the biggest test of patience of the year for me.”