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ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 Justin Rose was rather blunt about the fact it\u2019s been a year since Rory McIlroy won a golf tournament, which happens to be the title he\u2019ll begin to defend Thursday when the Arnold Palmer Invitational begins at Bay Hill.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne win in 12 months is not going to be acceptable for Rory, for sure,\u2019\u2019 Rose said Wednesday. \u201cBut the great thing about Rory \u2014 which when you\u2019re competing against him is not the great thing \u2014 [is] when he\u2019s questioned, he kind of somehow snaps into a gear and proves a lot of people wrong. He\u2019s done that through his career a couple of times, so I\u2019m going to be careful about saying too much.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
McIlroy is in a somewhat odd place with his game in that he\u2019s been playing well enough to win for the most part, but it seems whenever he does kick it in with his game, there\u2019s been someone else in the field who\u2019s been just a little bit better.<\/p>\n
McIlroy enters this week with four consecutive top-five finishes, so it\u2019s not as if he\u2019s playing poorly and missing cuts. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m playing well, it just seems like one or two people play a little better than me every week I tee it up,\u2019\u2019 McIlroy said. \u201cI played well in Mexico [two weeks ago]. DJ [winner Dustin Johnson] played just a little bit better than everyone else. So I\u2019m in a good place with my game, doing everything pretty well and just got to try and keep continuing on that path. If I keep working on these things and keep doing the right things, hopefully sooner or later I\u2019ll turn all these good finishes into a win.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
When Rose\u2019s words were relayed to him, McIlroy said, \u201cIf I\u2019m on this path, which I think I am, to becoming a better golfer and a better player and having a better mindset and trying to come to terms better with perceived losses \u2014 whether they be second place, third place, fourth place \u2014 if someone were to tell me you have to go through 12 or 18 months or 24 months of this, but come out the other side of it and you will have those five-win seasons, six-win seasons, these 12, 18, 24 months will have been worth it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like I\u2019m on that path to improvement and becoming a better golfer and I can feel I\u2019m a better golfer right now than I was a couple years ago,\u2019\u2019 he went on. \u201cI might have won more a couple years ago, but I feel like I\u2019m putting things in place to get to a point where I\u2019ll get back to those four-win, five-win, six-win seasons. But you can\u2019t just turn it on like that. It takes awhile, it takes time, but I think I\u2019m doing all the right things to get back to that point.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
McIlroy stormed to his win last year at Bay Hill with a final-round 64 that was highlighted by a scorching finish on the back nine. That was his first win in almost 18 months and he hasn\u2019t won since. This isn\u2019t good enough for a player who\u2019s won 14 times on the PGA Tour, including four major championships.<\/p>\n
\u201cI played with Rory in the final round last year when he won [at Bay Hill] and I was right there and we were having a pretty good tussle down the stretch and he chipped in on 15 and that was sort of the little turning point there,\u2019\u2019 Rose said. \u201cBut it\u2019s always good to see Rory win. He makes winning look good. He\u2019s obviously got that type of game that when he wins it looks so easy that you think, \u2018Why aren\u2019t you doing this week in week out?\u2019 But we all know that golf isn\u2019t that way. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s doing a lot of good things, and if I was Rory I would basically be telling myself to be patient and keep focusing on what I\u2019m doing and keep creating the chances.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n