Rory McIlroy continues quest to fix his putting issues

4:56 PM ET

DUBLIN, Ohio — Putting can be so perplexing, even though it is seemingly the simplest part of the game. Everyone can stroke a putt on a green, right? But few can hit 330-yard tee shots and make it look routine.

Of course, putting is not easy, certainly not at the professional level, on sometimes deviously-difficult greens with all manner of grasses, slopes, undulations and pitches. Not to mention the pressure that comes with tournament golf.

But it still has to be maddeningly frustrating to those who can hit the longest shots with relative comfort but deal with so much angst on the greens.

Case in point: Rory McIlroy.

The No. 3-ranked player is coming off a victory on May 22 at the Irish Open. And yet just two weeks before the start of the U.S. Open, he has reverted to a conventional putting grip after going the left-hand-low (or cross-handed) route for most of the spring. McIlroy opened the Memorial Tournament with a 71 at Muirfield Village Golf Club including 29 putts.

It was the 127 putts he took — never once breaking 30 putts for any round — at the K Club that convinced him to make the switch. Coming into the Memorial, McIlroy ranked 122nd on the PGA Tour in the strokes-gained putting statistic.

“I had a really good ball-striking week,” McIlroy said of his European Tour victory in Ireland. “I hit a lot of fairways and made a lot of greens, and that’s what made that tournament. Any other week, you’re not going to be doing too well (with so many putts).

“I feel like my pace was a little off left hand low, and I feel like coming into golf courses like here where the greens are really quick, and obviously Oakmont (for the U.S. Open) where the greens are ridiculous fast, I felt like to give myself the best chance of having a little bit more feel and a little bit more visualization. I just needed to go …

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