It’s a numbers game when all is said and done and, unfortunately for Rory McIlroy, the math isn’t adding up like it used to.
McIlroy captured his fourth career Major when he lifted the giant Wannamaker Trophy in the gathering gloom of Valhalla on an August evening in 2014. At the time, it seemed a matter of course that he would be collecting further Major trophies, his destiny. It was his fourth Major win in just 24 championship appearances.
Destiny, though, is a strange creature. It doesn’t always deliver.
And since that win in Louisville, McIlroy has gone 33 Major championships without another win. He has had no fewer than 19 top-10s in that spell, but the drought has prolonged and the only numbers adding up are those of close calls and near misses.
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Ahead of the US Open at LACC, McIlroy addressed the elephant in the room.
“I’ve been trying and I’ve come close over the last nine years or whatever it is, and I keep coming back. I feel like I’ve showed a lot of resilience in my career, a lot of ups and downs, and I keep coming back. And whether that means that I get rewarded or I get punched in the gut or whatever it is, I’ll always keep coming back.”
The next one up is the 151st Open at Royal Liverpool Golf Club next month.
The closest of the close calls ...
2018 Masters (Augusta National)
Tied-5th
McIlroy moved into contention with a magnificent third round 65, which included a front nine of 31, and had him three strokes behind 54-hole leader Patrick Reed. Things moved quickly in the final round. Reed bogeyed the first and failed to birdie the Par 5 second. McIlroy had a short eagle putt on the second which would have tied Reed, which he missed, but the birdie closed the margin to one. The expected kick-on failed to materialise and McIlroy’s final round 74 (on a day when the average score was 70.49) saw him drift away to a tied-fifth finish.
2018 Open Championship (Carnoustie)
Tied-2nd
McIlroy was tied-sixth through 54 holes, four strokes behind a trio of co-leaders in Jordan Spieth, Xander Schauffele and Kevin Kisner. McIlroy was two-over-par through his opening eight holes and seemingly out of the mix until be rolled in birdies at the ninth and the 11th and moved into a share of the lead with a long eagle putt on the 14th. But that was as good as it got, as he failed to make another birdie and had to settle for a four-way tie for second, two shots behind champion Francesco Molinari.
2022 Masters (Augusta National)
2nd
McIlroy was a distant 10 strokes adrift of 54-holes leader Scottie Scheffler heading into the final round. Then, came the fireworks. McIlroy made four birdies on his front nine and chipped-in for birdie on 10, eagled the Par 5 13th and holed out from a greenside bunker on the 18th for a closing birdie in a round of 64. It was the only bogey-free round by any player and enabled him to leap up the leader board to solo second ... but still not enough to close the gap on Scheffler, who shot a closing 71 to win by three.
2022 Open Championship (St Andrews)
3rd
A third round 66 had moved McIlroy into a share of the lead with Norway’s Viktor Hovland, the duo four shots clear of the two Camerons, Smith and Young. The expected duel between the two Europeans didn’t materialise. Neither did McIlroy’s expectation of closing the deal. Instead, it was Smith who got hot with the putter in a brilliant final round of 64 while McIlroy – his putter stone cold, requiring to use the flat stick 36 times – only managed a disappointing 70.
2023 US Open (Los Angeles Country Club)
2nd
The slim margins of winner and loser were exemplified by the numbers game played out by Wyndham Clark and Rory McIlroy. From Friday to Sunday, the duo had matching scores – 67-69-70 – and the difference in the end was what was recorded in the first round, when Clark had a 64 and McIlroy a 65. And, demonstrating the thin line, the one extra shot on McIlroy’s card in that first round was when he whiffed a shot from greenside rough on his closing hole.
