Here's the funny part about Rory McIlroy commenting on his workout program and the concerns of Brandel Chamblee that he might (might!) be taking the gym time too far: McIlroy seems genuinely annoyed by the comment.
Speaking the press here at Riviera on the eve of his first West Coast Swing appearance, McIlroy talked about his program and then, with a bit of an edge, referenced Golf Channel's Brandel Chamblee.
Q. You talked about golf being such a thinking game, you take such an analytical approach. In your discovery of yourself in exercise, where did nutrition and exercise become such a foundation of who you are?
RORY McILROY: It probably started at the -- probably end of 2010 is when it started because I had back problems and as a 19-, 20-year-old having back problems isn't really the -- really you're just at the start of your career, and you don't want to have to keep managing that for the rest of your career.
So it was really the middle of 2010, end of 2010 where I realized that this isn't going to get any better unless I start to take care of myself better. So getting in the gym, eating better, and I think from the start of 2011, the direct correlation between leading a healthier lifestyle and my performance on the course was the same. I won my first major in 2011. I got to the best World Ranking I had ever been in 2011, and then it just continued from there.
So I definitely feel like the more I got into exercise and fitness and everything, the better my game became. And that correlation has sort of -- they have become parallel to me.
CHRIS REIMER: Do any squats today?
RORY McILROY: Not yet. I'm planning to, though. Maybe with Brandel on my back. (Laughter)
The laughter was from the assembled press.
McIlroy did eventually speak eloquently on the topic and made his case, but it was with an edge that suggests he is annoyed at having to explain the rationale. Given what has happened to Tiger Woods, he evidently doesn't see why the question comes up.
Still, this was very informative:
Q. Along the lines of your fitness program, without getting into the actual specifics, what are the goals? What are you trying to work on?
RORY McILROY: Stay injury-free. That's really it. Obviously I'm trying to be strong but the whole reason I started this is because I was injured. Okay, I was injured last year but for a completely different reason.
You know, touch-wood, I've been fine since. I had a degenerative disk in my back that sort of stayed the same. It has not got any worse, for example. It's always been there. It's always been a disc that isn't quite as hydrated as the rest of them, but that's the golf swing.
You think of the golf swing and the torque and the load that you're putting on your spine. The spine does two things: It flexes and it rotates. And it doesn't like to flex and rotate at the same time, which is what a golf swing does. So if anything, the golf swing is way worse for your back than anything I do in the gym.
So I'm trying to make my back as strong as I possibly can so that when I come out here and swing a golf club at 120 miles an hour, I'm robust enough to take that 200 times a day when I hit shots and when I practice and when I play golf.
Q. To follow up on that part about fitness, generally speaking, the audience that sees you work out, or they see the fruits of your labor, maybe they are not seeing as much -- curious your thought, on the focus on your core as a whole as it complements your back and as it complements the fitness in general.
RORY McILROY: Because that's what -- but they don't see the mobilization exercises. They don't see the other stuff that goes into it, the warm-up. Not the real golf-specific stuff, but the things that you might only need a couple of dumbbells that weigh five pounds to do.
Tweet those too! For the children...
There's a lot of specific things in the golf swing that you need to strengthen and you need to have stable. And obviously the core, for me, I'm lucky because I was hyper-mobile before I started all this gym stuff. If anything, I needed to tighten my body up a little bit.
So that's why I can go in the gym and lift heavy-ish weights, for golfers, anyway. You look at other sports, I'm doing nothing compared to what those guys do, but I can get in there and I can try to get a little bit stronger because my body needs that nearly, and I want to get stronger in my core and definitely my lower back and my glutes and my legs, because I feel that's a huge foundation. And if I can maintain that and be strong in the right areas and be stable, obviously it helps my golf, but it will help me prolong my career to the point where I want to play and not have to end it prematurely because of not having looked after my body in the right way.
Brandel, to his credit, is having fun with the reaction. Hopefully Rory sees it that way.
Golf Digest's podcast tackled the topic too.
Rory McIlroy, Kevin Na, Charley Hoffman, and Anirban Lahiri were among those who hit a variety of vintage clubs from the 1920's, 50's and 90's to commemorate the occasion. Many other players I witnessed--including some of the mid-30s variety who not a single person is paying money to see this week--passed.
