Resilient Rory McIlroy suffers another major disappointment at 2023 U.S. Open, but a sweet reward is still to come

LOS ANGELES – The long wait continues for Rory McIlroy.

It was as if the stars were aligning for the kid from Holywood, Northern Ireland, to break his nine-year major drought this week at Los Angeles Country Club in the shadows of the Hollywood hills.

After taking advantage of benign conditions Thursday with a 5-under 65, McIlroy remained in the periphery of the leaders with rounds of 67 and 69 by staying true to his game plan of playing smart and with patience. Entering Sunday’s final round, he was one shot off the leader (and eventual champion) Wyndham Clark. A birdie at the first had the crowd stirring in anticipation. Little did they know it would be his last.

McIlroy missed chance after chance, putt after putt, and a couple poor decisions by his own admission kept him from every truly putting the pressure on Clark. The result? A ho-hum, even-par 70 and another major left on the table.

Sound familiar? McIlroy compared this week to last year’s Open at St. Andrews, where he held a share of the 54-hole lead but managed just two birdies to finish third, one stroke behind Cameron Young and two behind winner Cameron Smith.

“There was a couple of things that I probably would have done differently, but all in all, I played a solid round of golf,” a visibly disappointed McIlroy said after the round. “That one wedge shot on 14, missed birdie putt on 8, really apart from that, I did everything else the way I wanted to.”

“Yeah, fine, fine margins at this level and at this tournament especially, but I fought to the very end. I obviously never give up. And I’m getting closer,” he continued. “The more I keep putting myself in these positions, sooner or later it’s going to happen for me. Just got to regroup and get focused for (Royal Liverpool) in a few weeks’ time.”

Rewatching old videos of his 2014 Open Championship win at Royal Liverpool – the English venue that will host this year’s Open in a matter of 32 days – made him realize how he needed to keep the driver in the bag this week and trust his other skills around the famed LACC’s North Course.

“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,” he explained. “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. Some were coming up short, some were going a little long.”

“I can play free. I think I proved that today,” McIlroy added. “Just felt like my speed control was a little off with the putter. That’s probably why I didn’t make a birdie since the first.”

So where does he go from here? Nobody wants McIlroy to win more than himself, and he praised his ability to bounce back earlier in the week.

“I’ve been trying and I’ve come close over the past nine years or whatever it is, and I keep coming back,” he said after 36 holes on Friday. “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.”

This week was a punch in the gut. If the reward is to come, he’ll need to practice what he preaches.

“I would go through 100 Sundays like this to get my hands on another major championship,” he added on Sunday. With 19 top 10s on his resume since his last major win, he’s nearly a quarter of the way there.

According to McIlroy, the countdown to the Open started three minutes before his post-round presser, but he’s got a few stops before his next crack at finding water to end his drought. First up is the Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Connecticut next week before heading across the pond to The Renaissance Club in North Berwick, Scotland for the Genesis Scottish Open, July 13-16, held a week before the Open.

If there’s one thing we learned from this week, it’s that the countdown to Royal Liverpool is on, and McIlroy will be back.