Rory McIlroy suffered another agonising close call in a major championship as Wyndham Clark finished one stroke ahead of the Northern Irishman on a dramatic day at the US Open at Los Angeles Country Club.
The Northern Irishman shot a round of 70 on Sunday, but it was not to be enough as he finished solo second as the 29-year-old American Clark won his first major championship.
McIlroy stuck with Clark for most of the day, but fell three shots behind at the 14th hole when he missed the green with a wedge and failed to get up and down after a drop for a ball plugged up the face of the bunker. On the same hole, Clark hit a superb five wood to the middle of the green and two-putted for birdie.
Clark then stumbled across the line, bogeying 15th and 16th holes but McIlroy could not find a birdie on the closing holes as Clark parred 17 and 18 to achieve the narrow win on 10-under-par.
Hideki Matsuyama sets record with personal best 11 birdies to take one-shot lead at The Sentry
The year in sports quotes: The wit and wisdom - from Damien Duff to Daniel Wiffen, Kellie Harrington to Rory McIlroy
Denis Walsh: Irish sport’s underdog mentality has been replaced with an unabashed hunger to be the best
Four of Ireland’s top five most admired sports people in 2024 are women
McIlroy’s game from tee-to-green was on-point, hitting most of the fairways and greens, but lost two strokes to the field in putting on a day when his putter went cold. Despite giving himself a number of birdie chances, the only birdie he could convert was at his opening hole.
“Yeah, I think the putter I’ll rue some of the chances I missed. It was hard to get the ball close all day. And that wedge shot on 14, coming up a bit short,” McIlroy said.
“I hung in there, I fought, I didn’t quite get the job done. But I’ll keep coming back until I get another one.
“I’m right there, such fine margins at this level. I just have to keep putting myself in these positions and sooner or later it’s going to happen for me.”
World number one Scottie Scheffler finished in third place on 7 under, with British Open champion Cameron Smith fourth on 6 under. Englishman Tommy Fleetwood shot the second major 63 of his career to shoot up the leaderboard to tied fifth, level with Min Woo-Lee and co-leader heading into the final round Rickie Fowler, who collapsed to shoot 75 on the final day.
