Rory McIlroy turns to Pete Cowen to try end seven-year Major drought

Rory McIlroy has been working with coach Pete Cowen to fix a 'two-way miss' ahead of the WGC Dell Match Play. It looks like the arrangement may become a more permanent one this season. Photo: Sportsfile

Brian Keogh

March 23 2021 02:30 AM

Rory McIlroy might have been with coach Michael Bannon since he was eight but he will now work with Englishman Pete Cowen as he bids to end his seven-year Major drought.

The Holywood star has told fellow professionals that his desire “to go in a different direction” will see him taken on the Sheffield master professional as he battles to get back to winning ways.

Neither McIlroy’s management company nor Cowen (70) would confirm the partnership but it was common knowledge in tour circles yesterday that Cowen will try to help McIlroy win the Masters in 19 days’ time and become just the sixth player to complete the career Grand Slam.

How much involvement Bannon (62) will have going forward, if any, remains to be seen. But having coached McIlroy since he was eight, then being persuaded to give up his club job at Bangor to travel with McIlroy full-time in 2012, a permanent split would be a major surprise.

Cowen, who worked with McIlroy and Shane Lowry as a consultant to the GUI more than 15 years ago, was asked by McIlroy to give his opinion on his swing during the Arnold Palmer Invitational and The Players and the pair worked together for two days at McIlroy’s Florida base early last week.

Bannon steered McIlroy to four Major wins in four years between 2011 and 2014 but he has been unable to travel as frequently due to the Covid-19 pandemic, prompting McIlroy to consult Butch Harmon last year.

McIlroy confessed he was “dejected” after a poor final round performance at Bay Hill but while he said he was “maybe looking to go in a different direction”, he denied at The Players that he was thinking of personnel changes.

His missed cut at Sawgrass appears to have convinced him otherwise and after falling to 11th in the world, his worst ranking for three years, a radical change is not unexpected.

The Holywood man will be first out on the course for the opening round of the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play at Austin Country Club tomorrow where he faces Ian Poulter in his first round-robin match.

A win over Europe’s Ryder Cup talisman would be a big confidence boost in a group that will also see Australian Cameron Smith take on big-hitting Lanto Griffin. The 16 group winners will progress to the knockout stages with Lowry taking on Texan Ryan Palmer in a group where top seed Jon Rahm opens his account against Colombia’s Sebastian Munoz.

Neither Gary Woodland, Adam Scott, nor the injured Brooks Koepka, Justin Rose nor Tiger Woods will be in Austin. Koepka is also undecided about the Masters, telling Golfweek he had surgery last week after suffering “a right knee cap dislocation and ligament damage”.

In the opposite-field Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship, 2019 winner Graeme McDowell is joined by Pádraig Harrington and Seamus Power as Gavin Moynihan, Jonathan Caldwell and Cormac Sharvin tee it up in the Kenya Savannah Classic today.

Leona Maguire and Stephanie Meadow, meanwhile, will prepare for next week’s opening Major of the season, the ANA Inspiration, in the Kia Classic in Carlsbad from Thursday.

Kenya Savannah Classic,
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