The 2024 US Open felt like the week the curtain brutally came down on Rory McIlroy’s hopes of ever adding to his four major victories.
Few will ever forget the pictures of Rory McIlroy looking absolutely crestfallen as he watched Bryson DeChambeau sink the winning putt at Pinehurst. Rather than congratulate the champion, McIlroy made a rapid exit.
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McIlroy missed short putts on two of the final three holes in North Carolina. While the slider on 18 was far from straightforward, the bogey on 16 perfectly summed up how the Northern Irishman has snatched defeat from the jaws of victory on a few occasions over the last decade.
McIlroy and DeChambeau were playing in separate groups on Sunday. But by the back nine, it felt like a duel between the two for the title.
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It was such an enthralling, engrossing battle that it is hard to recall a shot any other player in the field hit on Sunday.
McIlroy certainly got caught up in the occasion. Speaking in the weeks after, McIlroy admitted he made a mistake in watching some of the shots DeChambeau hit down the stretch.
That obviously hurt him at the US Open. However, it seems that error was pivotal in his victory at The Masters the following year.
Of course, golf fans felt like they had hit the jackpot when it turned out that McIlroy and DeChambeau would be in the final group for the last round at Augusta National.
In the red corner – and leading by two – was McIlroy. The Masters had been the final piece in the Career Grand Slam jigsaw he had been seeking to complete for nearly 11 years.
And in the blue corner was a constant reminder of what happened when McIlroy’s previous glimpse of a major victory presented itself. McIlroy and DeChambeau are very different characters; they play on different tours, and they approach the game very differently.
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McIlroy conceded that DeChambeau was not the playing partner he would have wanted for the occasion.
But that prompted the 36-year-old to make what proved to be an inspired decision.
“I said that to [Bob] Rotella. We always met by the caddie area there before I went to the range every day and he said ‘how are you feeling today?’ I said ‘I’m feeling good, I’m feeling good about my stuff’. But I said to him the one thing I am uneasy about is just the pairing,” he told Fried Egg Golf.
“He said ‘just make him invisible’. He goes don’t engage, don’t look at him, just get lost in your own little world. You have Harry beside you, have him be your companion and just get lost in that world.
“That is what I tried to do. But I felt like that was the biggest impediment between me and winning The Masters that day. And then once it was apparent that wasn’t going to be the biggest impediment then I made myself the biggest impediment!”
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In truth, DeChambeau failed to rise to the occasion. But he did lead after two holes. So it would have been easy for McIlroy to start panicking.
However, McIlroy regained the lead on the third. And by the time they got to the 11th tee, he was five clear of the Crushers captain.
DeChambeau’s challenge was unravelling rapidly. By the end of the 11th, it was in tatters.
Obviously, McIlroy definitely did not make it easy on himself from there. But the way he fought back after playing the first two holes in two over par meant that he knew all was not lost when he inexplicably found Rae’s Creek on 13.
That decision to play as if DeChambeau was not there made a huge difference.
Admittedly, Justin Rose produced one of the rounds of his life to almost take it on the final furlong.
But McIlroy was ultimately vindicated for focusing on executing his own game plan. Perhaps that would not have happened without the pain of Pinehurst – and lessons to come from that day.
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