Even Rory McIlroy’s biggest critic surely could not help but sympathise with the Northern Irishman when he looked completely crestfallen as Bryson DeChambeau made the par which sealed the US Open for the American.
Rory McIlroy had the US Open in the palm of his hands, with the 35-year-old leading by two at one stage during the back nine at Pinehurst No. 2.
But missed short putts on 16 and 18 left the stage clear for DeChambeau to claim the title. Perhaps unsurprisingly, McIlroy was in no mood to hang around and left the course almost as soon as DeChambeau holed the winning putt.
Of course, McIlroy has now gone almost a decade without winning a major title. In that time, he has registered 21 top 10s in golf’s four biggest events, and finished second at the US Open for a second consecutive year.
The reason Rory McIlroy has not won a major since 2014
But this loss may be the most painful of the lot. Most will surely point to the putts McIlroy missed in the last three holes, but speaking on Golf Channel, Brandel Chamblee is not convinced that the putter is the root of the issue.
“Rory had more pressure on him to win than anybody else on the field. The burden of expectation had mounted, like a heavy coat on a summer’s day. It had mounted since 2015 and just exponentially grew and I think it quantum leaped in the 2022 Open Championship,” he said.
“I think the reason that he hadn’t won since then is because his swing simply isn’t as good as it was prior to that. Four of his first 15 majors, he won two of them by eight shots. That’s forecasts domination into the future but he changed his golf swing. It’s not in the same place it was in in 2014. It’s deeper and it comes from across the line and it comes from the inside.
“So, yes, we can infer negative attributes mentally but the contributing factor to that more than anything is the golf swing.
“If you are prepared you can relax and I think he goes there and maybe he has done all the work, but there is nagging pull left or a nagging flair out to the right which puts him a bit on the edge. We saw it today. We will remember the putts on 16 and 18 but if you go back and look at all those iron shots which he just didn’t hit crisp enough,” he went on to add.
Mental hurdle just gets bigger and bigger as each opportunity passes him by
There is a very good chance that no-one would have believed for one second in 2014 that McIlroy would approach the final major of 2024 still awaiting his fifth major.
When he won at Valhalla, it appeared that he was well placed to at least rival Tiger Woods’ tally. But it is Woods who has won another major in the years since.
The worry is that McIlroy appears to have tried everything to get back across the line. He has gone into tournaments in amazing form, and he has also been struggling, giving him the luxury of going a little more under the radar.
He has led at the key moments in majors, including up until his final putt on Sunday. His swing appeared to be in a good place at Pinehurst, with his driving proving to be exceptional most of the week.
But as each major passes, the size of the hurdle in front of him just appears to get bigger and bigger.
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