Rory McIlroy Got an Important Text from Tiger Woods Ahead of PGA Championship

Woods apparently reached out to McIlroy after watching his performance at the Wells Fargo earlier this month.

Rory McIlroy had some work to do following his missed cut at the Masters. Then he posted another disappointing T47 finish at the Wells Fargo, where he battled a two-way miss with his driver. 

It was natural that the four-time major champion would need to evaluate his swing mechanics after those kinds of results, but McIlroy probably expected to receive advice from his coach Michael Bannon, not Tiger Woods.  

According to Golf Channel’s Eamon Lynch, Woods sent McIlroy a text after his performance at Quail Hollow, in which he wrote that he saw something off in his golf swing. 

Woods, who is recovering from a recent ankle surgery, is known to pay close attention to professional golf when he’s not competing, so his attentiveness came at no surprise. 

After McIlroy received the text, he apparently spent several hours at Woods’s house in Jupiter, Fla., on Friday, where the two talked through the five-time Masters champion’s observations. 

In addition to Rory McIlroy having Michael Bannon in town, @eamonlynch relaying on Golf Channel that Tiger texted Rory he saw something in his swing at Quail Hollow, and Rory spent a couple hours at Tiger’s house on Friday talking about the swing.

— Brendan Porath (@BrendanPorath) May 16, 2023

It’s unclear what Woods pointed out in McIlroy’s move specifically, but the Northern Irishman did detail some of his working swing thoughts on Tuesday ahead of the PGA Championship at Oak Hill.

“Yeah, just club getting a little bit out of position at the top and then sort of the sequence of events that follow from there. Club face was getting a bit too open on the way back, really struggling to square it on the way down, and then sort of re-closure was getting a little too fast, throwing my hands on it, and sorta started to get the miss going both ways, especially at Quail Hollow. 

“So trying to sort of tighten the start lines up a little bit, keep a little bit more strength in the club face, feel a little bit more squareness throughout the swing. That's sort of what I've been working on over the last week or so,” McIlroy said.