Dame Laura Davies has shared her prediction regarding whether Rory McIlroy will now ever win another major after the Northern Irishman endured a devastating finish at the US Open on Sunday.
Rory McIlroy will need no-one to tell him that he had the US Open within his grasp, despite starting the day three shots behind Bryson DeChambeau at Pinehurst No. 2.
At one stage during the back nine in the final round, McIlroy was two shots clear at the top of the leaderboard. Unfortunately, his putting let him down at the crucial moment.
The 35-year-old missed short putts on 16 and 18 to open the door for DeChambeau to win by one if he could get up and down from the bunker on the final hole. As everyone now knows, DeChambeau was able to produce one of the shots of his life to set up the par he needed.
Dame Laura Davies predicts whether Rory McIlroy will win another major after US Open agony
McIlroy has now finished in the top 10 at a major 21 times since his most recent victory a decade ago, but no outcome has probably been as agonising as what happened in North Carolina. And with that, some must be wondering whether he will ever add a fifth major title.
Speaking on Sky Sports (broadcast on 17/6; 00:10), Dame Laura Davies suggested that she still believes that McIlroy will get the job done eventually.
“I hope this doesn’t hurt him but it really could do because it’s such a disappointing loss. We all thought he had it and it got away,” she said.
“The shot that won it for Bryson was the three wood on 13, if Bryson doesn’t birdie that – but Bryson came back at him and put the pressure on. It’s all about pressure. And Rory, he will be remembered for the two putts but he played unbelievable golf. He can take a lot of heart from being in position again. He will win one, we know he will at some point but this is hard to take.”
Missed putt on 16 surely influenced what happened next
Of course, we will never know for sure, but you would not be at all surprised if the putt on 18 would not have happened had he not missed that short putt two holes earlier.
It was clearly a slippery one, but McIlroy never looked to be confident over it, and the ball barely clipped the hole as it went by the right.
McIlroy had done so brilliantly to put himself in such a commanding position, and crucially, his putter appeared to be hot, with a few efforts from significant distance dropping earlier in the day. This felt different.
It is going to take all of McIlroy’s strength to get across the line if he finds himself in a similar position again in the future.
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