Smylie Kaufman has shared the interesting comment he heard about the putt Rory McIlroy had on the 72nd hole at the US Open which ultimately denied him a chance to make a play-off with Bryson DeChambeau.
Rory McIlroy must still be wondering how exactly he is not a five-time major champion, with the Northern Irishman leading by two at one stage during the back nine at Pinehurst.
McIlroy losing by one will have been all the more agonising because of the two short putts he missed in the final three holes, with the mistake on 16 really opening the door for Bryson DeChambeau to stay alive in the event.
With DeChambeau missing the fairway on 18, McIlroy’s par putt further up the hole appeared to be a massive moment, with the 35-year-old presented with the chance to make the clubhouse at -6 and pile the pressure on.
Smylie Kaufman defends Rory McIlroy after missed putt on 18 at US Open
McIlroy had chipped the ball past the hole and had a slippery downhill putt. In truth, he did not look particularly confident as he tentatively sent his putt below the hole and made a bogey.
Because of what happened on 16, it appeared that McIlroy had lost all of his confidence with the flat stick, but it appears that the putt two holes later was considerably more difficult than it looked.
Speaking on The Smylie Show, Kaufman suggested that he was told by others how tough that putt actually was.
“For me, reading it from behind the green, I saw a putt that was inside left. Now, if he would have hit it inside left, he could have made it, but he probably would have had 20 feet coming back, based on the read. So for those of you who were watching on TV who said that read was terrible, I probably would have missed it low as well. That was definitely a learning experience,” he said.
“A tricky putt, because I asked Justin after the round, ‘hey, what did the putt do?’ ‘Well, he aimed it left and pushed it’. It’s debatable on where you needed to start it to make it, but I guess he had told me that Max had the same putt in a practice round and he said it was a really goofy putt. It was the type of putt that if you started it outside of the hole, it just hung there. So I thought it was really interesting that it was a difficult read.”
McIlroy’s biggest mistake on final hole may have come before putt
Of course, no-one will ever know what would have happened had McIlroy made the putt on 16 to remain in control of the tournament.
But that miss would have surely been on his mind on 18, particularly with the stakes so high as DeChambeau prepared to hit his second shot from the wasteland back down the hole.
It did not appear to be a confident stroke from McIlroy, and it barely made contact with the hole as it slipped by.
It was such a difficult putt, but with that, perhaps the mistake was hitting his chip past the hole, rather than leaving himself with an uphill putt to at least make a play-off.
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