ST. ANDREWS, Scotland – Rory McIlroy took off his hat to recognize the crowd, and left him when he shook hands with Viktor Hovland and came out of the 18th green, and held him out as he walked up and down the stairs. . towards which he had to sign a more disappointing scoreboard. He kept running his hands through his hair, processing what had just happened.
The problem is not your hair, Rory. You’ve seen Cam Smith. They weren’t really the nerves, either. Or the sense of history of the Did We Mention This Was The 150th Open Championship in St. Louis. Andrews. Or the fact that apparently all the Old Course fans were cheering on McIlroy as if he was handing out the winner’s check with them. Or the great drought of Rory, who has just reached the age of eight and 31 consecutive majors.
That was just golf. He passed the golf. McIlroy started the day with some leadership and a sensible game plan. Play smart. Stay in his “cocoon.” He and the adorable Hovland were four shots away from each other. You didn’t have to be a superhero. He needed to make a putt or two, and he needed Smith not to shoot a closing 64 like he did.
McIlroy played pretty well on Sunday. He really did. He looked like the best pilot on the planet, which he could be. He made a few loose approach shots, but that happens, and they weren’t so loose. Then he said, “I played a very controlled round of golf.” Analyzing McIlroy’s psyche is a popular pastime in which he often participates. But there is really no indication that his problem on Sunday was mental. Asked what pressure he was feeling, he said, credibly, “Not as much as I might have let myself feel before.
“The putter has gotten a little cold today,” McIlroy said, and that’s exactly the right way to describe it. Not bad. Cold. His rhythm to the greens was exquisite. But he hit eight putts between 10 and 20 feet and didn’t make a hole in any of them. He didn’t have a single bird in a putt.
“I tried to be as patient as possible and kept making good putts,” he said. “I hit a good putt in 13… 14… 15… 16… 17. I was hitting good putts. They just weren’t falling. ”
If he made a major mistake, he was tactical: “There are a lot of putts today that I couldn’t trust myself to start it inside the hole. He was always starting it on the edge or just outside, thinking he would move. Many times they stayed there. “
It happens to everyone. Tiger Woods has said after many rounds that he just couldn’t get an idea of the green speeds. Jack Nicklaus finished second in more majors (20) than he won (18).
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There were times during McIlroy’s great drought when he seemed to be lost inside his own head. Before the final round of the 2018 Masters, he tried to publicly pressure Patrick Reed, but that kind of game isn’t really McIlroy’s thing, and he played poorly the next day. At the 2018 British Open at Royal Portrush in his home country, Northern Ireland, he hit his first out-of-bounds shot and made a quadruple bogey. This was part of a pattern: he often showed up, played out of competition early on, and then played freely with low pressure and made a top 10 of the back door.
But McIlroy sounded different this week. He seemed comfortable with himself and his mental focus every day. He took the lead Saturday night and said, “My hotel room is right in front of the big yellow board at number 18, to the right of the first one. And every time I go out, I try to imagine McIlroy in the cim “. He did not shy away from the moment, but he did not move forward either.
He was patient and balanced, and ultimately was just a victim of Cam Smith’s excellence, like everyone else. Smith made five straight birds in his back and a couple of courage at 17, the road hole. McIlroy, playing a group from behind, realized he needed a bird before he reached number 18, and when he didn’t make any, he needed an eagle at 18 years old.
He had to make a 33-yard chip across the Sin Valley to force a playoff. Then he said, “It’s a tough chip. I mean, I thought it was a hole or nothing, really. At the time I wasn’t trying to go to T2 with Cameron Young.”
He hit his chip aggressively and passed 20 feet beyond the pin. If he had needed a birdie on the 18th, he would probably have made one and shot a 69 in the last round. If he had made a mid-range putt earlier in the round, he would probably have forced a playoff. The margin was so thin.
Its ending was disappointing but not discouraging. McIlroy had a fantastic year in the majors: second in the Masters, eighth in the PGA, tied for fifth in the U.S. Open and third here. As he said, “It’s one of the best seasons I’ve had in a long time.” As Hovland said: “He’s been very close and he’s played really well this year. But at the end of the day, he’s still playing the way he’s (playing), he’s going to get one very soon, I think … still, yes , it’s hard. You have to finish it. “
The audience dragged McIlroy affectionately throughout the week, not only for his past successes or how he played, but for the positions he has taken. It is fighting in a just but difficult battle against the LIV Gulf funded by the Saudi government. (Smith dodged questions about whether he will join LIV; we know how this story ends.) When Smith received the Claret Jug, McIlroy said of the fans, “(I wish I had given them a little more to cheer- los). Right now there is a worthy winner on green number 18 “.
McIlroy would also have been a worthy champion. This week, McIlroy was as close as a player could to winning a major without winning the major. You won’t get a trophy for that. But it is still true.