TV analyst Brandel Chamblee has never shied away from critiquing the best golfers in the world, whether it be Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson or any of the LIV Golf renegades. Even World No. 2 Rory McIlroy can’t dodge Chamblee’s firehose of criticism.
But the well-known NBC Sports and Golf Channel talking head riffing on McIlroy is no surprise, though, given his collapse at the 2024 U.S. Open, the latest major flameout in the decade since Rory last lifted a major trophy.
Early in the week at this 2024 Open Championship, Chamblee was at it again in the Golf Channel booth at Royal Toon, diagnosing in explicit detail how McIlroy seems to falter every time he has an opportunity to end his major drought, which dates back to the 2014 PGA Championship.
“Why does Rory’s game deteriorate in the biggest moments? And, of course, those biggest moments are the major championships. He looks like he can hit every single shot in the game and run faster than anybody can run at the Wells Fargo, or the Canadian Open or regular PGA Tour events,” Chamblee began.
For context, McIlroy has won 16 non-major PGA Tour events since his 2014 PGA Championship victory. But in the same span, he’s failed to raise his game to that level at the majors. Chamblee used some helpful stats to make his point.
“[McIlroy] can contend, obviously: 37 majors he’s played since the last win, 21 top-10s, that’s a 56% top-10 percentage,” Chamlee said. “Only 11 times though has he been in the top 10 after 36 holes, so a lot of those times he gets off to slow starts and then plays well on the weekend when there’s really no pressure to win.”
Chamblee then referred to a graphic detailing the eight majors since McIlroy’s last victory that he’s finished in the top 5. But, as Chamblee explained, in five of those eight majors McIlroy ended up finishing in a worse position than he was in at the halfway point.
He pointed out a large difference in McIlroy’s scoring average as evidence of his struggles winning majors.
“His scoring average is 70.4 when he’s been in the top 5 going into the weekend at major championships, where his scoring average in general is 69, so he’s one-and-a-half shots, roughly speaking, worse,” Chamblee explained. “And it begs the question, why? Why does his game deteriorate? Clearly he’s good enough to get himself there, although I think his golf swing is not as good as it used to be from 2010-2014.”
Why, indeed. Of course, Chamblee was just setting himself up to reveal what he thinks McIlroy’s fatal flaw in the majors has been over the past decade.
He began by arguing that the top athletes in all sports perform their best when they are “being themselves,” and that with uncluttered minds they’re “free to perform at the highest level” with a narrowed focus and the confidence that comes with it.
But McIlroy, according to Chamblee’s reasoning, has a mind cluttered with swing thoughts preventing him from performing like other top athletes, even pointing the finger to an “epidemic” of YouTube golf instruction “deep dives.”
“So, it seems to me that Rory over time has acquired a lot either from swing instructors or putting instructors or sports psychologists or deep dives on YouTube,” Chamblee explained, “and I think with this generation there is an epidemic of people doing deep dives on YouTube and getting, I think, sort of cluttered up with curiosity.
“And so when I see Rory, it almost looks like to me that he’s either got too many swing thoughts in his mind — and I see Rory standing over the ball longer than I’ve ever seen him stand over it this year — or he’s just got too many different voices in his head,” Chamblee said, before finishing his argument. “It’s the only logical conclusion that I can draw. Because why can one person be so obviously different getting into the lead or getting close to the lead, and so obviously different when he has the lead.”
That stats don’t lie. McIlroy has no doubt run into a mental wall when navigating golf’s biggest stages, a wall he doesn’t seem to encounter outside of the majors. Whether Chamblee’s speculation about YouTube “deep dives” is accurate is another question.
But one thing is for sure: if Rory can beat back the demons and lift the Claret Jug on Sunday at Royal Troon, he will finally silence all of his doubters, Chamblee included.
