Rory McIlroy suffered a heartbreaking loss at the US Open on Sunday.
NBC
Bryson DeChambeau won the US Open on Sunday with a stunning, heroic, memorable backhand from the front yard at No. 18 at Pinehurst No. 2. He made the team to win in the most spectacular way possible.
But Rory McIlroy lost in a very painful way, too.
About 90 minutes before the tragic end, McIlroy birdied the par-4 13th, his fourth birdie of the five-hole stretch. With the birdie he got to 8 under par and opened up a two lead lead over DeChambeau.
Almost everything that followed was painful.
On the par-3 15th, McIlroy's approach shot hit the middle of the green but rolled back and landed on the Pinehurst grass. He had to step up there and cut one to 30 feet and set himself up for a putt-putt bogey.
It got worse. On the par-4 16th McIlroy played his approach to 25 feet and sent that birdie putt tumbling two and a half feet past the hole. Stats guru Justin Ray reported that this year, McIlroy was 496 of 496 from within three feet – but he hit this putt too hard, too far left or both. It grabbed the edge and turned around. Bogey again.
McIlroy made a nifty up-and-down from the greenside bunker on the par-3 17th and reached the 18th tied for the lead. He sent a driver down the left, drew a tight lie, chipped one just short of the green and played a chip shot to leave a left-to-right slide from three feet, nine inches.
This time he didn't play enough breaks; his stroke looked true but the putt went right, caught the right edge of the hole and missed.
It would be a huge loss for anyone in any tournament, but for McIlroy there are layers of additional damage.
When he won the PGA Championship in 2014, the 25-year-old McIlroy had a four-over lead and the sky seemed to be the limit. He is 35 now and still holding on to four. McIlroy has done almost everything since then; reached World No. 1, won PGA Tour events of all shapes and sizes, led Europe in Ryder Cup victories, played his way into the majors and competed to the finish. The US Open alone has been a miss; he finished T9 in 2019 and got a little closer each year since: T8 in 2020, then T7, then T5. Last year he finished second, just one shot better than Wyndham Clark's total. But going into Sunday's final round he still hadn't got the No. 5.
He hasn't done it yet.
McIlroy watched from the bunker as DeChambeau finished up and down the front fairway. He had his hands on his hips, his hat on. He watched the winning putt go down and then turned to walk out, caddy Harry Diamond by his side. He refused the media and went to the parking lot; by the time DeChambeau signed his card McIlroy had left the area.
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