Learning Is Priority for Rising McIlroy

During his brief and highly publicized professional career, Rory McIlroy has endured much scrutiny. Since turning pro at age 18 in 2007, he has gone under the news media's electron microscope, inspected for everything from his overflowing curly mane to his aggressive style of golf to his penchant for fast and expensive sports cars.

Through almost all of it, McIlroy, a 20-year-old from Northern Ireland, has shown remarkable forbearance.

This week in the W.G.C.-CA Championship at the Doral Resort and Spa, McIlroy has another opportunity. As the youngest player and an important part of the international contingent that makes up 65 percent of the field, McIlroy can, in his first year as a PGA Tour member, help tighten the international grip on world golf dominance.

At No. 9, McIlroy is one of six Europeans ranked in the top 10 in the official World Golf Rankings. He is one of 34 international players in the top 50. And, with his PGA European Tour win last year in the Dubai Desert Classic, he showed he belongs in the fast company.

It is a measure of his international appeal that he was chosen by EA Sports to be the first player to share the cover with Tiger Woods for Woods's highly popular golf video game. And this week, McIlroy is paired with the defending champion, Phil Mickelson, in Thursday's first round on the famed Blue Monster Course.

It is a measure of his maturity that he grasps the significance of that moment.

"He's the second-biggest draw in golf," McIlroy said, pointing to Mickelson's Q-rating rather than his world ranking of No. 3. "It should be a lot of fun. So I'm really looking forward to that."

McIlroy is not just looking forward to it as a chance to bask in the reflected glow of Mickelson and the two-time United States Open champion Retief Goosen. He sees it as another chance to learn about how to improve.

When he was paired with Mickelson during last season's HSBC Champions in Shanghai, which Mickelson eventually won while playing in the final group with Woods, McIlroy was watching Mickelson, studying his approach to the game.

"I had never played with him before," McIlroy said. "I really like the way he approaches the game. Probably quite similar to myself. He's quite aggressive and likes to drive it, yeah, aggressive. He goes for shots that some people might not. I think that we play a similar type of game in that way."

He also took note of the way Mickelson interacted with galleries, which is a key element of his popularity with fans.

"You go from a green to a tee and Phil will always look at the crowd and smile and nod, you know, really interact with them," McIlroy said. "Other guys will stay focused and keep their eyes on the ground and just walk. I'm probably somewhere in between.

"You know, I think Phil does an incredible job with all that. He signs autographs for an hour after he plays every day, and he does a great job of that. It's very commendable that he does it."

McIlroy has taken two other learning steps recently that he believes will help him shore up the area of his game that he believes is weakest -- closing out tournaments in which he has the lead. He recently blew a chance to repeat at Qatar, and earlier in his career, he three-putted from 12 feet, losing a playoff.

Last week, he sat with Jack Nicklaus during lunch, and picked Nicklaus's brain for 90 minutes about his approach to winning. His main takeaway?

"I think one of the biggest things that I took from it was patience," he said. "And just to learn to wait and learn to bide your time and know that if you believe in yourself that it will happen; it will happen one of these days, so it's just a matter of waiting and staying patient."

In a session last week and one this week with the noted sports psychologist Dr. Bob Rotella, McIlroy said he learned what it meant to be in the moment.

"Just trying not to worry about what other people are doing and just really taking control of your own game and your own emotions, and really putting yourself in a little bubble so you're completely engaged in what you're doing yourself," he said.

It is a rare golfer, let alone a 20-year-old, who is equipped to sort out the seemingly conflicting needs to be aggressive and to be patient, to interact with galleries and to put oneself in a bubble. But McIlroy is pursuing higher knowledge from golf's wise men, sifting and sorting and looking for ways to improve.

Those are telling points in measuring a golfer's potential, and McIlroy's, at the moment, appears to be limitless.