Rory McIlroy just misses a Hollywood finish at the US Open

It would have been fitting if someone from Holywood had won the US Open at the Los Angeles Country Club this year. But Rory McIlroy, born in the Northern Irish town of Holywood, has no such year.

On Sunday, McIlroy was chasing his first major championship title in nine years, a drought that continues to shadow a luminous career that began with four major titles from 2011 to 2014. In April, he missed the cut at the Masters Tournament. A month later, he tied for seventh place in the PGA Championship.

Then on June 6, McIlroy, the most vociferous loyalist supporting the PGA Tour in its feud with the Saudi Arabian-backed LIV Golf circuit, learned just hours before news broke that the two tours shockingly announced a business partnership. had formed.

McIlroy, like nearly all PGA Tour players, felt blindsided.

But on Sunday, a bright, smiling McIlroy, 34, was once again enthusiastically chasing another major title, in the final round of the 123rd US Open. He made a birdie on the opening hole and for most of the next four hours he looked poised to reel in the eventual tournament winner, Wyndham Clark, the third round co-leader with Rickie Fowler.

McIlroy, however never birded another hole, and finally, after some nervous closing moments, Clark outlasted McIlroy with a stroke as both golfers shot even-par 70s. It was McIlroy’s third runner-up finish at a major and his 10th top five finish at a major since 2014.

“I’ve been fighting to the end and I’m getting closer and closer,” McIlroy said on Sunday of his fifth major title hunt, adding: “I just have to keep putting myself in these positions and, you know, sooner or later it’s going to happen for me.”

McIlroy said he felt a connection between his performance on Sunday and his second-place finish last year at the British Open in St Andrews.

“The last two real opportunities I’ve had at majors have been pretty similar performances,” he said. “Don’t do much wrong.”

McIlroy’s pursuit continued until the final strokes of the event, when Clark, playing in the final group of the day, was forced to execute a two-putt from 60 feet on the 18th green to clinch the championship.

McIlroy admitted he was hoping for a mistake.

“You don’t want to wish anyone bad, but you’re really hoping for a three-putt,” he said. “You hope to get into a playoff somehow to keep giving yourself a chance. You are rooting for one man, and that man is you at that moment. A mistake can give you a glimmer of hope.

“But Wyndham was pretty much rock solid all day, and that ended up being a great two-putt.”

McIlroy’s fourth round started promisingly as he reached the green on the par-5, 585-yard first hole with his second shot and two-putted for an opening birdie that briefly lifted him into a tie for the tournament.

But he struggled to capitalize on that early momentum, even as he registered par after par – a run of 12 in total. He showed guts sinking several tense four-foot par putts, but failed to get his approach shots close enough for easier birdie attempts.

McIlroy held on, but was unable to convert a single putt longer than six feet during the middle of his round. On the eighth green, he pulled a birdie putt 8 yards far left of the hole, a missed opportunity McIlroy specifically mentioned in his post-round press conference.

At the par-3 ninth hole, McIlroy’s towering approach shot with an iron came to rest 4 yards from the flag. As he walked onto the green, fans in two packed stands begged him to make a fairly easy putt that would have leveled him with Clark, but again McIlroy was unable to seize the moment.

McIlroy’s streak of consecutive pars ended on the par-5 14th hole after his tee shot bounced into the rough left side of the fairway. He was forced to go short of the green with a second shot, though he then had to face a short wedge shot to the green.

McIlroy later said he was choosing between two clubs for the shot, but he felt a gust of wind just before he started his swing, and it hampered the shot’s momentum.

“I had the right club, but maybe I should have just waited 15 or 20 seconds for that little gust of wind to settle,” he said.

McIlroy’s golf ball landed perfectly about a foot and failed to clear a large bunker protecting the front of the 14th green. The ball embedded in a grassy bank between the sand and the green.

He was allowed free relief in the grass to the right of the bunker, but his unpredictable down chip to the green rolled 8 yards from the hole. That led to a bogey and McIlroy dropped to nine under par, bringing Clark’s lead to two strokes.

McIlroy finished with four routine pars.

At the end of his press conference on Sunday, he was asked if he was getting tired of answering questions about waiting nine years for a fifth major championship win. He admitted it was exhausting, but added, “At the same time, if I finally win this next major, it will be very, very sweet. I would go through 100 Sundays like this to get another major championship.