AVIDGOLFER

McIlroy: ‘I Haven’t Lifted A Weight All Year”

Rick Arnett /

I and many others appreciate how transparent Rory McIlroy is with his fans and the media. And, while he tends to respond immediately (with occasional regretful aftershocks) to questions or critiques via social media, fans give him hall passes due to those postings. Like how he singed Twitter wild card Steve Elkington recently.

Yesterday, Rory answered back to those who believe he’s still hitting the weights far too much.

“Honestly, I haven’t lifted a weight all year, and it’s tough for me to come out and sort of say I don’t,” McIlroy said at the Travelers Championship. “But I literally have — the most I’ve lifted in the gym is 15 pounds this year because of my injury. I’m nowhere near as strong as I used to be. I’m not. But I don’t need to be. I feel like physically if I’m stable and I’m strong in the right areas, I’m okay.

“So at least I can’t be criticized for that this year.”

“You feel like golf is a nostalgic game, so people are very — it wasn’t like it used to be,” said McIlroy. “But there is this new way of coming through that you need to modernize golf. There are some people that are sort of stuck in the era that they played and some people that want to move on from that.”

“Even what Justin Thomas did last week shooting 63, everyone compares it to something somebody did in the ’70s. It’s like why do we have to do that? Why can’t we just see it as what it is, an unbelievable score. Nine under, the lowest score ever shot in the U.S. Open, and leave it at that. Not have to compare it back in the day when people think golf was better, not better, whatever.”

Touché.

Rory McIlroy