Rory McIlroy delivered a rare and fascinating insight last week, around his US Open rounds, into the role of support staff towards fine-tuning the fine details.

Although a vocal supporter of long-serving caddie and long-time friend Harry Diamond – most often in defence when pressed by media – McIlroy took time out of his New York scoring to discuss the value of others helping steer the ship such as sports psychologist Bob Rotella and coach Michael Bannon.

“I've worked on and off with Bob for 16, 17 years and there's usually nothing new in there,” said McIlroy. “It's just things that you've either forgotten or you've gotten away from.

"He does such a great job of simplifying things and breaking things down into very bite-sized pieces that you can take with you onto the golf course and little mantras and little sayings.

placeholder image — Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy during the final round of his US Open on Sunday. (Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images)

"Certainly it's not like I'm going to him and looking for new stuff every time, but just the way he frames it and the way he's able to relate it back to maybe other parts of life or giving yourself perspective.

"Really for me, especially weeks like this when it's very easy to get like drawn into the outcome of things, like I want to win or I want to get myself – you know, he gets you back to ‘well, if you do this, this and this then the outcome will take care of itself’.

"So I think it's just focusing on the things that you can control, and if you can execute on those, then hopefully you'll find yourself with a chance to win because of that.”

Recent tournaments – most notably on his way to becoming only the fourth player ever to retain the Masters green jacket – have featured McIlroy utilising time between rounds to hit the practice range and tweak areas of concern.

When asked about his improved ability to find solutions to problems on the course with work off it, McIlroy highlighted his mindset – and the help from coach Michael Bannon.

“I've always wanted to have full ownership of my game and my golf swing,” said McIlroy. “I've never wanted to hand my golf game over to someone else.

"I've maybe dabbled in that in the past...I worked with Pete Cowen for six months in 2021 and I learned some things from that, I guess, experiment, for want of a better word.

"I felt like, to me, I need it to be my own idea...I need it to be my own feelings.

"Even I worked with Michael last week (prior to the US Open) in London, but it's really me leading and saying ‘okay, this is what I'm feeling, this is what I want to do...tell me if I'm completely off, if not, then we'll go from there’.

“I've always wanted ownership because your coach can't be out there on the golf course with you when things start to go wrong, and you need to know how to manage your patterns.

"I feel like over the years I've definitely gotten better at that and I think that's part of the reason why my consistency has been improving as my career has went on.”

McIlroy signed off at Shinnecock Hills with a tied 32nd finish on the US Open major leaderboard after rounds of 69, 71, 73 and 73 – accepting the course “won the battle over me”.

The Masters champion’s next event on the schedule is expected to be the Genesis Scottish Open at The Renaissance Club from July 9-12 before the season’s final major, The Open, around Royal Birkdale (July 16-19).

On Sunday, following his closing round in New York, McIlroy discussed his next steps.

“I'll be playing some links golf this week probably coming up,” he said. “But, yeah, it's my favourite time of the year to go back home and play...play The Open and I get to spend a bit of time back there.

"This (US Open) was not too dissimilar to an Open Championship in terms of how the golf course started to play over the weekend.

"But a bit of links golf over the next couple weeks will be nice.”