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LOS ANGELES – There comes a time at the end of every golf tournament when the hopeful competitor is officially defenseless. They used all their bullets, finished 72 holes, signed their scorecard and were forced to wait. For Rory McIlroy, it started on a couch in the recording tent.
McIlroy had walked through the doors and got into the waiting game with Pip in his stride, having hit 70 even. But McIlroy couldn’t throw a punch, meaning he had a chance of slipping on a banana peel, and he began to show it. In the time between entering the registry and signing his scorecard, his mood deteriorated. His agent patted him on the back as he plopped down on that couch, begging the golf gods for a three-shot shot from Windham Clark on the 72nd hole at the US Open.
McIlroy sat between the caddy and the agent for only a few minutes. You wonder what those minutes are like. Do they fly or fly? When Clark finally made the most important shot of his day – a terrific volley from 60 feet – McIlroy was on his feet and out the gates of the scoring area. A nearby radio indicated whatever was left of Clark: one foot five inches. This golf tournament has been cooked. Another great opportunity comes and goes. But the wait is not over yet.
We’ll have to wait until it’s official,” a USGA employee said calmly, holding McIlroy. So he just stood there, frozen for a few more senseless moments. Every unfixed eye on a TV is locked onto McIlroy. He held a water bottle in his right hand and stared at the ground, just listening. The fastest signal would come through the air, from the crowd at 18. When it arrived, McIlroy was held up for a while longer. Another 15 seconds passed until Clark’s blow flashed on the TV in front of him.
“Yeah, that’s it,” McIlroy said, turning toward his first post-tour interview. He was ready to move on.
Rory McIlroy had been waiting a long time for his next major tournament. His fifth major championship, if it comes. It’s been eight years and 10 months since that hot night in Louisville when he made his way to the top of the golf world. He was so excited when he did, he started the countdown from his winning press conference: 242 days until the Masters. He felt unbeatable at the time, to us, to himself, and sometimes even to the rest of the PGA Tour.
You could write entire books about the last nine years of his life. Countless careers on the PGA Tour have started and ended in that time. He saw Phil Mickelson win a sixth major, at the age of 50, at the track (Kiawah Island) where McIlroy was the betting favourite. He’s seen Brooks Koepka win five majors alone in those nine years, leapfrogging him in the career standings. He’s seen all three of Jordan Spieth’s majors and both of Justin Thomas’ PGA Championships. He has watched many players of lesser ability win one of the four biggest trophies in sports.
It’s been so much time, he admitted this week, that the specifics of those majors he earned in 2014 have become a blur. A few weeks ago, he found himself watching the highlights of his 2014 Open Championship win at Royal Liverpool, surprised by how many irons and threes he had played in that week.
“Something has sparked in my mind about, You know how to do this. You know how to play smartMcIlroy said Saturday night.
His last major finish came from the penultimate duo on Sunday afternoon, with a one-shot lead off two major winners he had never before. Both of those numbers made him a popular pick in Vegas again. But the next four and a half hours played out in a very familiar fashion. Too much good, not enough greatness. After making a birdie on the first hole for the fourth straight day, he failed to draw another circle on his scorecard. He said it feels very similar with a painful third-place finish at St Andrews last summer.
McIlroy only drilled one putt outside five feet. He clinched a 4-foot-by-8 that didn’t touch the hole. He self-inflicted when his 15-foot curler was kept outside. When the same thing happened on the 15th, he cursed again. His chosen four-letter word begins with an F. He next used it when he spoke to his agent about the only ghost of his era, on the 15th. From 124 yards, McIlroy’s gaping wedge was choked by the wind and he tumbled into the native grass atop a green dugout. When he was gifted resting free from the hairy lie, he erred 9-foot par. What could have been a 4 – at worse than a 5 – ended up being a 6.
What made this week different for St Andrews is that McIlroy got stalked last summer in Scotland. Cameron Smith shot a 64 in the old ballpark to run and hide. But this championship, eight time zones west, has been around all day. Clarke dropped shots on the 15th and 16th, energizing the tame Los Angeles crowd with McIlroy’s lead potential. Rory didn’t need to check the leaderboards because updates were yelling at him every few minutes. Fans barked at Clark’s bogey in the 15th. They yelled about his bunker tee shot in the 16th and celebrated his miss when he reached the green.
For about 15 minutes, the golf course secured some McIlroy magic. It happened in St Andrews, too. They shouted his stern name from both sides of the 18th hole on Sunday night. It happened in St Andrews, too. But when his approach turned into a 41-foot birdie putt, he had done just as many hopeful contenders do: He ran out of bullets. His fate was entirely in Clark’s hands.
“You’re rooting for one guy, and that guy is yourself at that point,” McIlroy said. “Yeah, I guess you just hope the other guy makes a mistake or makes a mistake or gives you a glimmer of hope.”
McIlroy’s week may have ended with a similar score for St Andrews – he even shot the same in the final round – but it looked very different. Recent news of the PGA Tour’s partnership with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund undermined McIlroy in a way that made him feel like a “sacrificial lamb.” These are his words, and it hurts to hear them. He responded at the Canadian Open with a press conference he described as the most uncomfortable feeling of his year; Tied for ninth and arrived in Los Angeles with a newly restricted media presence. He canceled his pre-tournament press conference, stating he had said everything he needed to say, then shot an opening number of 65 and refused to speak on Thursday night.
When things are going well, McIlroy seems to be really enjoying his time on the podium. But when life gets weird, as it has been for the last 12 days or so, time in front of a mic just serves as a distraction. On Friday, after the 67th second round, his press session was limited to five questions. On Saturday, only four. USGA officials have been told that if LIV Golf is asked, it will be the last question they hear.
Did this approach improve his chances this week? We can’t know, but he lost to only one man. will you stay We have to see. McIlroy stirred up a more selfish mindset in Canada, saying that last year’s win was “for a few more things” and that “this year, if I can cross the line, it will only be for me”.
You get the sense McIlroy might feel that way in July, when the next president arrives. He has the Travelers Championship this week, then the Scottish Open two weeks later. He was asked when the countdown to Royal Liverpool begins. He stopped to look at his watch. “Three minutes ago, I think.”
This makes him just like any elite professional. One major ending and the next becomes top of mind. Justin Thomas crashed out of the tournament this week – beating a few players – but quickly made himself room for optimism. I have another major. he told the Golf Channel. “If I win the British Open, no one will even remember that I missed a billion cut here.”
John Rahm was nowhere near competitive in this tournament but he claimed to have found something in the range on Sunday morning. Shot to 65 and smiled for the first time all week. Now, he’s going to take two weeks off and put everything into Hoylake Prep. Scotty Scheffler may have been undone by his putt again, but he’s got a new putter in the bag, and he’s been a three-round buddy. His Tiger-esque season needs a major championship if we’re going to remember him forever.
For McIlroy, the biggest difference between Sunday in Los Angeles and 11 months ago in St Andrews was how convincing he was at letting things go. When asked if answering questions about major disappointments is exhausting over and over, yes, he says, “It is. But at the same time, when I finally win that next major, it’s going to be really cool. I’d go through 100 days like this to get my hands on it.” Another major championship.
Those were the last thirty-six words Rory recorded in Los Angeles. They made you think about how many Sundays he’s already had. At the end of that Sunday last July, McIlroy buried his head and some tears in the shoulder of his wife, Erica, as they drove off in a golf cart.
This Sunday, he shot his face up when he found Erica at the entrance to a VIP tent on the back side of the club. The LACC members, their guests, tournament staff and volunteers began cheering for McElroy one last time, an applause that faded into the background when he buried his head into Erica’s shoulder once more. A long passionate hug followed, but without tears this time. This will never feel like St Andrews. The McIlrow couple moved into their cute car for a few last hugs with friends and a photo op with the security staff who surrounded their man all week. Rory sat in the driver’s seat and started driving to whatever was ahead. About 50 yards from the road, caddy Harry Diamond walked alongside a closer, clearly still working through the score.
“No blow,” he said, shaking his head. “Not even anyone.”