ST. ANDREWS, Scotland – Rory McIlroy took his hat off to acknowledge the crowd, and he left it off as he shook Viktor Hovland’s hand and walked off the 18th green, and he kept it off as he ambled over to the stairs that went up and down toward where he had to sign a most disappointing scorecard. 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. It wasn’t really the nerves, either. Or the sense of history for the Did We Mention This Was The 150th Open Championship at St. Andrews. Or the fact that seemingly all the fans at the Old Course were cheering for McIlroy like he would split the winner’s check with them. Or Rory’s major drought, which just reached eight full years and 31 straight majors.
This was just golf. Golf happened. McIlroy began the day with a share of the lead and a sensible game plan. Play smart. Stay in his “cocoon.” He and the adorable Hovland were four shots clear of everyone else. He didn’t need to be a superhero. He needed to make a putt or two, and he needed Smith to not shoot a closing 64 like he did.
McIlroy played pretty well Sunday. He really did. He looked like the best driver on the planet, which he might well be. He hit a few loose approach shots, but that happens, and they weren’t that loose. He said afterward, “I played a really 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 Sunday was mental. Asked about how much pressure he felt, he said, credibly: “Not as much as maybe I would have let myself previously feel.
“The putter just went a little cold today,” McIlroy said, and that’s exactly the right way to describe it. Not bad. Cold. His pace on the greens was exquisite. But he hit eight putts from between 10 and 20 feet and didn’t hole any of them. He did not have a single one-putt birdie.
“I tried to stay as patient as possible, and I kept hitting good putts,” he said. “I hit a good putt on 13 … 14 … 15 … 16 … 17. I was hitting good putts. They just weren’t dropping.”
If he made a significant mistake, it was tactical: “There’s a lot of putts today where I couldn’t just trust myself to start it inside the hole. I was always starting it on the edge or just outside, thinking it was going to move. More times than not, they just sort of stayed there.”
It happens to everyone. Tiger Woods has said after many rounds that he just couldn’t get a feel for the green speeds. Jack Nicklaus famously finished second in more majors (20) than he won (18).
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There have been times during McIlroy’s major drought when he seemed to be lost inside his own head. Before the final round of the 2018 Masters, he tried to publicly put the pressure on Patrick Reed, but that kind of gamesmanship 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 tee shot out of bounds and made quadruple bogey. That was part of a pattern: He has often shown up, played himself out of contention early, and then played freely with the pressure off and made a backdoor top 10.
But McIlroy sounded different this week. He seemed comfortable with himself and his mental approach every day. He took the lead Saturday night, and he said, “my hotel room is directly opposite the big yellow board on 18 there, right of the 1st. And every time I go out, I’m trying to envision McIlroy at the top.” He was not shying away from the moment, but he was not getting ahead of himself, either.
He was patient and poised – and ultimately, he was just a victim of Cam Smith’s excellence, like everybody else. Smith made five straight birdies on the back and a gutsy par at the 17th, the Road Hole. McIlroy, playing one group behind, realized he needed a birdie before he reached No. 18, and when he didn’t make one, he needed an eagle at 18.
He had to make a 33-yard chip through the Valley of Sin to force a playoff. He said afterward, “It’s a difficult chip. I mean, I thought it was either hole it or nothing, really. I wasn’t really trying to go for T2 with Cameron Young at that point.”
He hit his chip aggressively and it scooted 20 feet past the pin. If he had needed birdie on 18, he probably would have made one and shot a final-round 69. If he had made one mid-range putt earlier in the round, he probably would have forced a playoff. The margin was that thin.
His finish was disappointing but not discouraging. McIlroy had a terrific year at the majors: second at the Masters, eighth at the PGA, tied for fifth at 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 come awfully close and played really well this year. But at the end of the day, he keeps playing the way he’s (playing), he’s going to get one pretty soon, I think … still, yeah, it’s tough. You’ve got to finish it off.”
The crowd showered McIlroy with affection all week – not just because of his previous achievements or how he played, but because of the stands he has taken. He is fighting a righteous but uphill battle against Saudi Arabia government-funded LIV Golf. (Smith ducked questions about whether he will join LIV; we know how that story usually ends.) As Smith received the Claret Jug, McIlroy said of the fans: “(I) wish I could have given them a little more to cheer about. There’s a worthy winner right on the 18th green right now.”
McIlroy would have been a worthy champion, too. This week, McIlroy came as close as a player could to winning a major without actually winning the major. He won’t get a trophy for that. But it’s still true.