Rory Dishes Real Golf Advice You Can Actually Use: Play With Better People
- Updated: November 1, 2019
Twitter/@GolfDigest
Want to become a better golfer? Rory McIlroy has some quality advice for amateurs and it doesn’t involve the golf swing or driving it 350 yards so yes, even you can benefit from it.
Speaking to the media at the WGC-HSBC Champions in China, Rory was asked about advice that Xander Schauffele had given to a junior player before the first round of the event.
According to the reporter who asked the question, Schauffele mentioned that in order to become a better golfer, playing with people who are better than you and that you don’t like will help. McIlroy was then asked if he had found someone like that to play against.
In perfectly candid Rory fashion, he dropped this gem of knowledge:
I think for me, I was always the youngest to play, whether it be at my home golf club or in competitions. So I was always playing with people that were better than me, and I think that — even my caddie now, Harry, he’s basically five years older than me, and he was a very good player, and I always played with him. So Harry was always better than me growing up as a kid, but that made me a better player because I saw what level I needed to get to.
I don’t think you necessarily, you know, you don’t have to not like the person that you’re playing with, but I think it’s a wonderful piece of advice to find people that are better than you and to play with them, because it shows you what you need to do to get to that next level.
Not exactly rocket science, but very important to hear from on the game’s most elite players. It’s both practical and smart and doesn’t require a complete swing overhaul.
Rory wasn’t always the best when he was younger, but most of the time he was always the smallest. Did that stop him? Nope. He always used it as an opportunity to get better.
It’s easy to be comfortable, and yes it’s always fun taking a few nassaus off your buddy when you both are playing off a 20 handicap and know you can smoke him, but you’ll never improve as a golfer.
If you don’t care, then that’s fine. But if you do care to get better, the only way to do it is to put yourself in unfamiliar and uncomfortable situations and learn from each experience. Then you’ll really see where your game stacks up.
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