By Dave Skretta
Rory McIlroy put himself in position to end a decade-long drought in the majors, and answer a lot of questions about his ability to get it done, only to miss two short putts at the US Open on Sunday (Monday AEST) that left him racing out of the parking lot at Pinehurst in disappointment.
McIlroy signed for a 69 that left him five under for the championship, and had to watch on TV in the scoring room as Bryson DeChambeau finished behind him. The big-hitting DeChambeau did what McIlroy could not – got it done around the green – when he got up and down for par from 50 metres in a bunker short of the 18th green for a 71 and a one-shot victory.
“Rory is one of the best to ever play. Being able to fight against a great like that is pretty special,” DeChambeau said. “For him to miss that putt, I’d never wish it on anybody. It just happened to play out that way.”
McIlroy wasted no time making his escape. He climbed into an SUV in the players’ parking lot, his clubs loaded in the back, and briefly spun the tires in the gravel as he left without taking questions from the media.
His silence spoke volumes about how crushing the loss must have felt.
“At the end of the day, we are all human,” said Matthieu Pavon, who finished fifth. “He is one of the best players in the world, a true champion. It shows you how tough it is. The more you want it, the tougher it gets, and the highest expectation you have for yourself, the tougher it gets, the more pressure you got into.
Rory McIlroy after missing his par putt on the 18th.Credit: Getty Images
“Maybe this is a little bit of pressure that got him today for sure, but Rory is just a massive champion. I’m sure he will fight back and really soon.”
The first putt that McIlroy will rue until his next chance in a major – maybe the rest of his career, if he never wins a fifth one – came at the par-four 16th hole. Clinging to a one-shot lead over DeChambeau, he hit a towering iron to the middle of the green, then hit a nice lag putt to 30 inches but missed, for his second consecutive bogey.
The second came about 30 minutes later, when McIlroy walked towards the 18th green tied for the lead. He had chopped to the front of the putting surface after getting a bad break off the tee, his ball hard up against some wire brush, and proceeded to hit a pitch up the slope towards the hole. But his par putt from three feet, nine inches, slipped on by for one last bogey.
That shot proved the difference.
Bryson DeChambeau celebrates his victory at Pinehurst.Credit: Getty Images
McIlroy, 35, was the runner-up at Los Angeles Country Club last year, too, and said afterwards: “I would go through 100 Sundays like this to get my hands on another major championship.”
He has finished in the top 10 of the US Open each of the past six years, including a tie for fifth two years ago at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts.
McIlroy was also second at the US Masters two years ago, and tied for second at the British Open in 2018. He lost a great chance at St Andrews in the 2022 British Open. With each miss in the majors, the pressure grows on the Northern Irishman to end a drought dating to the 2014 PGA Championship at Valhalla.
He was in the hunt from the opening round at Pinehurst, shooting a five-under 65 on Thursday. McIlroy came back to the field a bit with a second-round 72, but rebounded with a 69 that put him with Patrick Cantlay in the penultimate group on Sunday.
The two feuded during the Ryder Cup last year in Italy, but there was no lingering animosity. In fact, the pair wished each other luck on the first tee, then got down to the business of trying to win one of the toughest tests in golf.
McIlroy was up to the challenge off the tee all week. He tied for third in fairways in regulation, missing the penal native areas as well as anyone until the 18th in the final round, and finished second only to DeChambeau in driving distance.
Yet it was on the slippery, turtle-backed, downright diabolical Donald Ross-designed greens that his US Open was lost.
McIlroy played the first 69 holes of the championship without missing a putt inside four feet; he proceeded to miss two in his last three holes. The first was also the first time he had missed a putt under three feet all season, and the second short miss left McIlroy to watch DeChambeau raise the trophy he won himself 13 years ago.
“He’ll win multiple more major championships. There’s no doubt,” DeChambeau said. “That fire in him is going to continue to grow. I have nothing but respect for how he plays the game of golf because, to be honest, when he was climbing up the leaderboard, he was two ahead, I was like, ‘Uh oh, uh oh.’ But luckily, things went my way today.”
Meanwhile, Min Woo Lee was the highest-placed Australian at the tournament, finishing in a share of 21st at five over.
He will join his sister Minjee at Paris 2024 after a fine display in North Carolina secured his Olympics spot for Australia alongside the resurgent Jason Day.
“It’s unbelievable to represent Australia,” Lee told AAP. “When you’re a professional, you don’t really get to represent the Australian side.
“Obviously – week in and week out – you represent Australia [on the PGA Tour] but, when you’re an amateur, I got to play for Australia a lot of times. So I do miss putting on the green and gold. That will be really special.
“My sister is going to be in there too, so it will be an unbelievable experience.”
As Australia’s top-ranked player at world No.21, Day is also delighted to be heading for his first Olympics after opting out in 2016.
The former major champion was world No.1 when he chose not to travel to Rio de Janeiro because of the Zika virus in Brazil when his wife Ellie was pregnant with their first child.
“I think I made a bit of a mistake not going down to Rio,” Day told AAP.
AP, with AAP
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