Rory McIlroy Will Bounce Back at Memorial Championship After Missing Cut at BMW

Rory McIlroy missed the cut at the BMW PGA Championship on the European Tour last week, but that won't stop him from challenging Tiger Woods and the rest of the world's top golfers in the 2013 Memorial Championship.

One bad week won't define him, and the truth of the matter is that McIlroy has been playing excellent golf for the most part since he withdrew from the Honda Classic in early March. 

Since that time, the Northern Irishman has logged four top-10 finishes in seven tournaments—including a second-place finish at the Valero Texas Open and an impressive eighth-place finish at the Players Championship. 

His showing at the Players was particularly impressive. Before this season, McIlroy hadn't made it to the weekend in three previous attempts at the Players.

A big change this year was his ability to adapt his game to the difficult Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass. Instead of using his driver, McIlroy adopted a strategy Tiger Woods has been utilizing for a while now, hitting fairway woods and irons off the tee—sacrificing distance for accuracy.

The strategy clearly paid off.

After finishing in 10th place in 2010 and fifth place in 2011, McIlroy missed the cut in last year's Memorial—his second of three cuts in high-profile events during the stretch between the Players and the U.S. Open.

He struggled to keep the ball in play, and his game spiralled out of control. In the end, he finished the first two rounds with a score of six over par after a horrible second round that saw three bogeys and two double-bogeys.

But since that time, McIlroy has been playing more good golf than bad. He won three tournaments after that bad stretch in 2012, and his excellent play carried over into the 2013 season—particularly since March.

Rough patches are to be expected from any golfer. The way Woods has dominated the PGA Tour during the course of his career, it's easy to forget that golf is a difficult game to master. Even the best players in the world hit peaks and valleys.

Last week in England, McIlroy hit a low point when he missed the cut, but he won't stay down in that valley for long. 

It will be much more surprising to see him miss the cut at the Memorial this year than it will be to see him win the tournament. He's one of the most talented players in the world, and he'll undoubtedly be one of the men vying for the chance to win this upcoming Sunday afternoon.

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