While Scottie Scheffler was the player of 2024, it was Rory McIlroy and Bryson DeChambeau who starred in arguably the most exciting day’s play all year, with the pair duelling over the US Open crown at Pinehurst.
Everyone knows how long it has been since Rory McIlroy won a major. Meanwhile, Bryson DeChambeau had a point to prove himself after coming close at The Masters and then finishing second at the PGA Championship at Valhalla the month before the US Open.
DeChambeau had a three-shot lead over McIlroy heading into the final round. But at one stage down the back nine, McIlroy was two in front and seemingly on course to win his fifth major title at long last. Unfortunately, there was to be a painful twist in the tale, with McIlroy bogeying three of the final four holes to lose by one.
McIlroy missed a short putt for par on 16 and then another on 18. Given how tricky the putt on the last was, some felt that McIlroy should have left his chip below the hole to leave himself with an uphill putt. However, it seems that McIlroy made the right decision by being aggressive.
Edoardo Molinari shares where it went wrong for Rory McIlroy at the US Open
It does appear that McIlroy took some time to get over the loss. He missed the cut at The Open, and he has since finished second again at the Irish Open and the BMW PGA Championship. The 35-year-old was not in contention on the final day of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. But despite the lack of victories since that day in June, the signs are incredibly positive.
Speaking to Fried Egg Golf, Edoardo Molinari hit back at the suggestion that McIlroy hurt his chances by going beyond the pin on the last at Pinehurst, while he also shared how he told McIlroy that another dominant spell appears to be around the corner.
“It would have been easier, yes, but then if he tries to leave himself below the hole on the chip shot, he might be 10 foot away, and all of a sudden, the make percentage from 10 foot, even from six feet or seven feet versus a four footer downhill across the slope, the four footer is much easier, so you should always try to be as close to the hole as possible,” he said.
“I think with Rory at Pinehurst, I think the big mistake was on 16, the bogey on 16 from basically the middle of the fairway with a short iron in hand. That second putt again, was three or four feet, but it was much easier than the one on 18. That’s probably what cost him the US Open I would say.
“And the other thing as well, you can talk as much as you want about that last round, but you cannot say that Rory putted poorly on that last round, because up until the 15th hole, he made basically every putt that he could make in that round. He was very unlucky on the par five, is that the fifth hole, where he hit a good second shot and ended up making a six. That was probably a foot away from being an easy four.
“I think people underestimate how difficult it is to win golf tournaments, especially majors, especially those big events. He hasn’t won in 10 years now, but there’s only four a year, there’s a lot of good players that are trying to win them. It’s extremely difficult and something you need to be lucky at one point.
“And obviously, he’s been on the bad side recently, but I saw him last week at Wentworth, it was before he finished second again, he just finished second at the Irish Open, and I said to him, ‘eventually if you keep playing like this, the wheel is going to turn, you’re going to be on the good side, and you’re going to start winning five, six and seven times in a year like Scottie does’. And he just laughed and I said, ‘yeah I know, I just have to be patient and it’s going to happen’.”
What is more important than McIlroy winning tournaments on the DP World Tour
After McIlroy missed the cut at Royal Troon, it really did appear that he was going to struggle to put the disappointment in North Carolina behind him. What made the 2011 Masters collapse easier to stomach was the fact that he won the very next major. That was obviously not the case this time around.
But he has produced some very impressive displays since. And, at McIlroy’s level, victories at the Irish Open and BMW PGA Championship are not going to define his career by any means. Instead, it is arguably more important that he keeps himself going in the right direction in these events.
He will know that the only way to banish the memories of what happened at Pinehurst is to win another major. So the remainder of this year is surely about putting the foundations in place ahead of 2025.
Molinari is clearly confident that it could be a special year for McIlroy.
Receive exclusive golf news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
