Podcasts
Does Brandel Chamblee have a point about Rory McIlroy's major drought being 'technical'?
Jared C. Tilton
Not long after putting in a full day's work of calling golf shots on NBC, Brandel Chamblee was back in the seat he loves the most - his seat on Golf Channel's "Live From" desk. The man had just witnessed one of the most shocking final rounds in U.S. Open history, and he had takes to get off.
And while Johnson Wagner completely stole the show in the late evening at Pinehurst No. 2's 18 hole, Chamblee and his latest "Live From" opponent, Paul McGinley, went at it for a must-watch segment of their own. Chamblee had pointed out that he believed McIlroy's almost 10-year major drought has been due to "technical" difficulties in his swing. McGinley aggressively pushed back, arguing McIlroy's futility was completely mental.
Whatever you think of Chamblee and his opinions, the debate made for incredibly compelling TV (the entire segment can be viewed here).
"I think, the reason he hasn't won since then [2014] is because his swing simply isn't as good as it was prior to that," Chamblee said. "Four of his first 15 majors, he won two of those by eight shots. I'm going to list all the people that have won two majors by eight shots or more since 1900: Rory and Tiger. And that's it. Just two. And that forecasts, into the future, domination.
"But he changed his golf swing. His golf swing is not in the same place it was in in 2014," he said. "It's deeper and it tends to be across the line and it comes from the inside. So, yes, we can infer negative attributes mentally, but the contributing factor to that, more than anything, is the golf swing."
In a nice bit of timing, we had Golf Digest's own Luke Kerr-Dineen, a self-proclaimed swing geek, on this week's episode of The Loop podcast. LKD believes Chamblee is not that far off in his criticisms of McIlroy, and that his major struggles are far more technical than we think.
To hear our chat with LKD, plus the rest of our full recap of one of the great U.S. Opens of all time, please have a listen below, and please like and subscribe to The Loop wherever you get your podcasts.