PINEHURST, N.C. (AP) — Rory McIlroy had every reason to feel bitterly disappointed.
He was poised to end all those years without winning another major when he couldn’t make a birdie over the last 17 holes, couldn’t hit a fairway to even give himself a good chance, and he finished one shot behind in the U.S. Open.
That was last year in Los Angeles, and it prompted McIlroy to look ahead and famously say, “I would go through 100 Sundays like this to get my hands on another major championship.”
Just not Sunday at Pinehurst No. 2.
The indelible images from the 124th U.S. Open share top billing. Yes, there was that 55-yard bunker shot from Bryson DeChambeau that he played expertly to 4 feet for the winning par putt. And there was McIlroy missing par putts from 30 inches on the 16th hole and 3 feet, 9 inches on the 18th hole.
Which will be remembered more?
Majors are won and majors are lost, and this was a little of both.
DeChambeau celebrated into the night at Pinehurst No. 2, wanting fans to touch the silver trophy. McIlroy left Pinehurst so quickly that gravel spit out from under the tires on his car. The time between McIlroy dejectedly leaving the scoring area to his plane taking off for home was 52 minutes.
“A tough day, probably the toughest I’ve had in my nearly 17 years as a professional golfer,” McIlroy said, the words coming from a social media post a day later instead of taking questions from print or broadcast media, more typical of a professional golfer over the years.
This was tough to watch, among the great collapses in golf, though not the worst in a U.S. Open or any other major.
“I am such an idiot,” Phil Mickelson said after the 2006 U.S. Open.
Already a runner-up three times in the U.S. Open, Mickelson had a one-shot lead going to the 18th hole at Winged Foot. He missed another fairway, took on a heroic shot he didn’t need with a 3-iron and made double bogey to lose by one.
“I would rather have blown it yesterday than this way,” Sam Snead said in 1947 after the U.S. Open, the major he never won.
Snead had a two-shot lead with three holes left in an 18-hole playoff at St. Louis Country Club. He was tied with Lew Worsham on the 90th hole and needed a 15-foot birdie putt for the win. Snead left it 30 inches short and went to rap it in when Worsham called for a ruling to confirm who was away. It was Snead’s turn, as he thought, and he promptly missed the putt and lost.
Jan Van de Velde losing a three-shot lead with a triple bogey on the final hole at Carnoustie in 1999. Ed Sneed losing a three-shot lead with three holes to play and then losing in a playoff at the 1979 Masters. Scott Hoch missing a 30-inch putt that would have won the 1989 Masters in a playoff.
