LONDON: Twice major champion Sandy Lyle is hoping world number one Rory McIlroy’s decision to switch golf clubs does not result in the same sort of “kamikaze dive” in form that David Duval suffered when he made a similar move.
Duval appeared to have the world at his feet when he was flying high at the top of the rankings in 1999 and won the British Open two years later.
The American, like 23-year-old Northern Irishman McIlroy, also agreed a switch to Nike clubs and Lyle said that was the moment which sparked a sudden decline he was never able to reverse.
“That move hurt the momentum of David’s career,” the 1985 British Open champion and 1988 US Masters winner said in an interview. “He wasn’t driving the ball well which put the pressure on his putting and that in turn put pressure on him making cuts.
“David then started on a horrible spiral of missing cuts. It could be that all stemmed from his problems with his new driver and it could be the same thing for Rory now.
“Rory’s momentum was very good last year but it can be very dangerous to change clubs,” added Lyle, referring to the world number one’s five worldwide wins in 2012 and his money-list victories on both sides of the Atlantic.
“David never got out of his spiral. He definitely took a huge kamikaze dive and never really got it back.”
Last month McIlroy put pen to paper on a 10-year contract, , to swap from Titleist to Nike clubs and suffered an instant setback by missing the cut at the Abu Dhabi Championship.
REUTERS
