Rory! Rory! Rory! So sad. I was gutted. I can only imagine how you feel.
I was sure that it was Rory’s year. On the 69th tee of the 124th US Open Rory McIlroy is 2 shots clear. Bryan Dechambeau is struggling. Play it canny Rory and this is yours. I was thinking that he just might get the monkey off his back but I was so nervous.
Three bogeys, two of them by missing 3 foot putts and Rory throws it away yet again.
Doug Sanders is famous for missing a 3 foot putt on the last green to beat Jack Nicklaus in the 1970 British Open. He lost after a play off. Well, Doug can rest in peace. Rory did it twice in 4 holes, not having missed a 3 foot put all season.
I have been watching golf for 50 years and I have never known anyone like Rory. To be playing like one of the best natural golfer in the world yet not able to close out the big ones and some of the littler ones. Nicklaus didn’t do it. Tiger didn’t do it. Only Rory.
I use the names of Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods intentionally. After Rory won his first second Major in 2012 he made it clear that he was no longer playing for money but for records. He had his sights on Nicklaus’s 18 Major wins and when he picked up two more in 2014 it looked like that was very much on.
No Majors since. Oh many will remind me he has been world number 1, Player of The Year a few times and won 40 tournaments across the world - 26 of those in the USPGA Tour. BUT… that is not what Rory was playing for.
As the commentators floundered in disbelief at his collapse in this US Open my mind went back to that 2011 Masters when he blew a 4 shot third round lead with a mental collapse on the back 9 in the final day. That evening my alarm bells rang loud. Rory was the most naturally talented golfer on the planet BUT did he have the head. I feared then that there would be days like the 2024 US Open.
The head is so important. In sport confidence pulses from it. Resilience too. When a tee shot goes astray can you refocus? Too often Rory highlights his biggest weakness. He has head melts. It actually costs him almost every week. Some weeks I watch and feel deeply sorry for him travelling home knowing that he blew yet another win. Sometimes before he even begins. Remember the opening hole at Portrush in the 2019 Open?!
So… why? Well I wonder about his leaving school too early. Rory didn’t need to stay at school. He was so unbelievably talented that he knew he’d never need A levels. He would manage financially.
It was a short sighted and flawed error. The mental side of sport is so much a part of it. Watch the footballers Guardiola and Klopp sign and you will see that as well as talented they are very strong mentally.
Golfers spend time in the gym to be as strong and fit as they can be. The mental muscle needs developed too. Most of Rory’s competitors did not leave school early. They went to Universities across America and developed their minds as well as their physiques. Education is not just about books and exams. I surmise that Rory has suffered for not going down that route.
Now, Rory is only 35. He still has an opportunity to make a dent in that target of 18 Majors. I so really really hope he does. And quickly! Whatever he does do this mental frailty in his make up has cost Rory many many Majors and other tournaments. It's a shame.
As a pastor I fear for him as he heads home tonight. What goes on in his mind. 10 years on and I blew another one. Maybe blew it worse than even that Masters in 2011 or the Open at St. Andrews in 2022. There’s a lot of scar tissue there and these two putts at the US Open are an open wound.
I so hope that his daughter Poppy and a marriage he’s now prepared to fight for will give him the consolation he needs. I hope too that he finally gets one at The British Open at Troon. If you can pray for such things, I will be.