Rory McIlroy urged to address 'missing ingredient' that could end major draught

Rory McIlroy has claimed he is attempting to make a number of changes to his golf swing, and one renowned coach as informed him exactly where he needs to improve

Rory McIlroy has been told exactly what he needs to work on to improve his golf game by one of the sport's most recognised coaches in David Leadbetter.

It has been a year of near-misses for McIlroy in 2024, most notably at the US Open in June, where he was agonisingly denied a fifth major championship win, and his first in 10 years. Leading the event by two shots with four holes to play at Pinehurst No. 2, the Northern Irishman made a number of errors down the final straight.

Three bogeys across the last four holes saw him surrender his lead to LIV Golf rival Bryson DeChambeau, who went on to win the title by a single shot at the expense of a heartbroken McIlroy.

Further disappointment has since followed at his home event, the Irish Open at Royal County Down, where he finished a shot behind Rasmus Hojgaard. A week later, McIlroy then missed out again, this time in a playoff, as he fell to Billy Horschel at the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.

Whilst McIlroy is of course close to his scintillating best, he still feels there is work to be done, having revealed he has made a key swing change ahead of this week's Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. Leadbitter meanwhile, has told the four-time major winner what he believes he needs to do to eventually secure win No. 5.

"The stats back up that Rory’s weak spot seems to be his iron play from 100 to 175 yards — the critical scoring range,” he wrote for Golf WRX. “If you compare Rory’s iron stats to Scottie Scheffler, the current world number one, the difference is quite remarkable whereas they are neck and neck in the driving stats.

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"Simply put, if he hits these clubs closer to the hole, he’ll have more birdie chances!” Highlighting exactly where the problem lies, Leadbitter went on: "With the club moving outside at the start, in actual fact the club is traveling on path farther than need be to complete its journey to the top.

"This creates a sync or timing problem where the body completes its rotation, but the arms continue swinging. With Rory’s aggressive lower body move on the downswing the arms then lag behind and the “stuck” feeling of the club coming too far from the inside results.

“This feeling doesn’t really affect his driver," he added. "However, with his short irons, this “stuck” feeling can be a liability and requires expert timing of the hands to square the face up.” McIlroy revealed on Wednesday that he has taken drastic measures to work on his swing, hitting balls solely in an indoor simulator in preparation for this week.

"I probably haven't liked the shape of my golf swing for a while, especially the backswing," he said in the Middle East. "The only way I was going to make a change or at least move in the right direction with my swing was to lock myself in a studio and not see the ball flight for a bit and just focus entirely on the movement. So did that for three weeks after the Dunhill [Links Championship].