On the 14th hole at Los Angeles Country Club’s North Course Sunday, Rory McIlroy got the kind of break that major-championship winners tend to get. He hit his wedge directly into the native grass of a greenside bunker, but because it was embedded, he got a free drop. Chefs kiss, you know? A tidy piece of luck.
McIlroy, however – as was the final-round story – missed a makeable putt and that par-5 bogey was the only square on his scorecard Sunday. Despite the single blemish, that single shot was the losing margin. Wyndham Clark, who had captured the Wells Fargo Championship last month for his first PGA Tour title, won the U.S. Open by one.
It was another close call for McIlroy – who hasn’t won a major since 2014 but has had 19 top-10 finishes at majors in that span, a startling 56 percent clip – and another Sunday of what could have been.
But McIlroy was pleasantly pleased with this week’s effort, and he’s already pivoted to the final major of the season. Even with this particular Sunday’s disappointment still fresh, McIlroy said while its exhausting to keep addressing his short-fallings, it’s just going to make the next winning moment that much better.
“When I do finally win this next major, it’s going to be really, really sweet,” McIlroy said. “I would go through 100 Sundays like this to get my hands on another major championship.”
At almost any other U.S. Open and McIlroy’s playbook on Sunday would have been just fine. He birdied the first hole of the day and then rang up a string of 12 straight pars before his blemish on the par-5 14th – a hole Clark two-putted for birdie. McIlroy’s approach on No.14 that ended up in a bunker and ultimately led to a bogey came when a wind gust peaked at its strongest. McIlroy said if he could have it back, he would have waited 15 or 20 seconds to let the gust settle.
Despite bogeys on Nos. 15 and 16 for Clark, the 2023 U.S. Open winner steadied the ship with pars on his final two holes to finish at 10 under. McIlroy finished at 9 under after he was unable to knock his approaches on Nos. 17 or 18 in tight. He had birdie tries of 31 feet and 41 feet, respectively, on the final two holes.
Although those late birdie attempts for McIlroy were in the might-get-lucky range, McIlroy did give himself chances early in the day. He had birdie tries of four feet, 12 feet, 14 feet, and 18 feet from Nos. 8-11. Cumulatively, McIlroy had as impressive a tee-to-green output as anyone else in the field at LACC, sitting first in strokes gained: off the tee, and 11th in strokes gained: approach. Even his putting for the week wasn’t poor – he was 33rd in strokes gained: putting – he just couldn’t find the right pace when he needed it the most.
“I thought I did really well at executing my game plan, hitting a lot of fairways, hitting a lot of greens, again, what you should do at a U.S. Open,” McIlroy said. “If anything, I felt like over the last two days when the greens started to get quite crispy that my speed control was off a little bit, and I think that’s the reason I didn’t hole a lot of putts. I don’t think I was hitting bad putts; just hitting them just with slightly the wrong speed.”
Clark, who won a U.S. Open record $3.6-million (U.S.), was steady enough through Sunday’s finale to win his first major title – seemingly out of nowhere. This was his seventh major-championship appearance and his previous best finish at a major was a tie for 75th at the 2021 PGA Championship. He missed the cut at his two previous U.S. Open starts.
There were plenty of folks cheering on Clark Sunday night. He lost his mother to breast cancer in 2013 while he was at Oklahoma State University and his story of perseverance after great loss had transcended golf.
McIlroy was not one of those people, of course, as Clark lined up his birdie try on the 72nd hole.
“You don’t want to wish bad on anyone but you’re really hoping for a three-putt (on the last hole),” McIlroy said with a smile. “You’re hoping to somehow get into a playoff and keep giving yourself a chance.
“You’re rooting for one guy, and that guy is yourself at that point.”
Despite missing the cut at the Masters in April, McIlroy has now finished tied for seventh and runner-up at the second and third majors of the season. He’s had four straight top-10s on the PGA Tour, including a tie for ninth last week at the RBC Canadian Open.
McIlroy is right back to work next week, flying across the country to play the Travelers Championship (the final regular-season designated event on the PGA Tour’s schedule) before zipping over to Europe to play the Genesis Scottish Open in July, the week prior to The Open Championship.
Ah yes, The Open.
It returns to Royal Liverpool this year, which just so happens to be where McIlroy won his Claret Jug in 2014. With a smile, he said the countdown to that major began, essentially, when Clark’s winning putt dropped.
“Fine, fine margins at this level and at this tournament especially, but I fought to the very end. I obviously never give up,” McIlroy said. “And I’m getting closer. The more I keep putting myself in these positions, sooner or later it’s going to happen for me.”