“I wasn’t a big kid and I needed to hit harder” – When Rory McIlroy reflected on how his putting skills has improved over the years

In an interview with Frank Bonilo a few years ago, golf sensation Rory McIlroy discussed the progression of his putting talents and how he evolved from a young, relatively small kid into one of the sport's most-known players today.

When asked about Rory McIlroy's remarkable improvement in his putting game over the years.

"Yeah, I mean, I don't know, I'm not a big guy, but whether that was just a growth spurt in those days, we didn't have the luxury of TrackMan or launch monitors to figure out what you needed to do to hit the ball longer. I always had a complex about length. I wasn't a big kid, and I knew that I needed length all the time, and I needed to be able to hit it harder and hit it longer.", McIlroy replied in an interview with Golf Channel.

Rory McIlroy went on to explain how he put matters beyond his own hands in order to make the changes that were needed.

"I probably created this move from the inside myself," he said. "I created my hips hard, and I got this sort of double lag thing that goes on in my hips. That's just something that I subconsciously did to try and get a bit of extra length and turn the ball over from right to left."

He added:

"I remember when I was 14 or 15, all of a sudden, you know, hitting the ball to 52 yards, you're hitting the ball to 80. I feel like I've almost gotten longer every year that I've played, and nowadays in the modern game, that's a very important thing to have."

Rory McIlroy: Career and Major records

On September 18, 2007, Rory McIlroy made his professional golf debut, one day before the Quinn Direct British Masters. He has accomplished tremendous things throughout his lengthy career, including holding the coveted world number one slot in the Official World Golf Ranking for almost 100 weeks.

Rory McIlroy is a four-time major champion, having won the 2011 U.S. Open, the 2012 PGA Championship, the 2014 Open Championship, and the 2014 PGA Championship. In doing so, he joined golf icons Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods as one of just three players to win four major championships by the age of 25.

Rory McIlroy quickly established himself as a formidable presence on the European Tour after going professional. He won his first European Tour title in 2009 and followed that up with his first PGA Tour triumph in 2010.

McIlroy made history in 2011 when, at the age of 22, he became the youngest golfer ever to earn €10 million on the European Tour. Not content with that, he went on to become the youngest player on the PGA Tour to collect $10 million in career earnings in 2012.

Rory McIlroy's professional golf career has been distinguished by remarkable talent, unshakable dedication, and a succession of historic achievements that have firmly established him as one of the sport's real icons.