While Rory McIlroy already has a US Open championship on his impressive resume, the third-ranked golfer on Earth failed again at adding a second title to his mantle on Sunday, and he claims it was the wind that did him in.
Yesterday, 32nd-ranked professional Wyndham Clark shocked the golf world by winning the first major of his career. It was a career-defining moment for the 29-year-old who nearly walked away from the sport recently and only won his first tournament in 2023 after six years on the tour.
Related: Top takeaways from Wyndham Clark’s sensational U.S. Open win
It was a feel-good moment that was this close to going into a playoff where the upstart would have had to go face-to-face with one of the sport’s few superstars in Rory McIlroy. However, that never came to pass because McIlroy was unable to close the one-shot deficit he had heading into the final holes of this year’s tournament. And he claims it was the wind that really hurt his chances late.
One of his best opportunities to pull into a tie came on the par-5 14th. After a rough, literally and figuratively, start to the hole he had a 125-yard shot into a narrow green. With the win picking up, he switched from a sand wedge to a choked-down gap wedge but the decision ended up costing him as he came up well short and looking for his ball in some thick grass near a bunker.
Rory McIlroy world ranking: 3rd
Following the event that he came up short in by one stroke, Rory McIlroy told the media that he wished he would have been far more patient when it came to the win on 14. “I might have just had to wait an extra 15 or 20 seconds to let that little gust settle,” McIlroy said.
The moment set him on a bit of a downward spiral as he, unfortunately, bogeyed the hole and it dropped him two back of Clark with just a few holes left. And that was all the eventual champion needed to maintain his lead and win the 2023 US Open.
On 14 McIlroy had a chance to limit the damage but missed a par putt. He also couldn’t deliver when he had a birdie opportunity on 18 after Clark bogeyed on 17. His putter failed him during his final round showing and the Irishman couldn’t help but reveal his frustrations with his shortcomings in his final day score of 70.
“I think the putter, I’ll rue some of the chances that I missed. It was hard to get the ball really close all day. It was that and that wedge shot on 14, coming up a little short, those are the things I’ll rue today.”
-Rory McIlroy
The performance mirrored his frustrating run in last year’s US Open where his putting again let him down late in the tournament.