You’d swear Rory McIlroy had forgotten the art of winning. He hasn’t.
McIlroy, it seems, can’t win even in a season that – so far – has featured three wins. Yet, the Northern Irishman’s status is such that those successes (which came in Dubai, New Orleans and Zurich), haven’t managed to hide the perceived failings of those close calls that have tormented him through the summer and into the autumn.
For the vast majority of players, be it on the PGA Tour or the DP World Tour, a season of three wins would be considered an outstanding campaign. For many, it would be a standout season. In McIlroy’s case, it would appear, that haul of victories isn’t enough simply because more is expected of him than anyone else.
McIlroy’s three wins of 2024 (to date) came in the Dubai Desert Classic on the DP World Tour and in the Zurich Classic (alongside Shane Lowry) and the Wells Fargo Championship on the PGA Tour. On their own, each a big tournament. Collectively, a brilliant haul of trophies.
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However, it is those close calls and near-misses which have provided the dominant theme of McIlroy’s season because of the sheer drama of each one, starting at the Dubai Invitational in January when he led on the final hole but hit his drive in the water and ended up losing to Tommy Fleetwood. While he banished those demons by winning the Dubai Desert Classic the following week, a summer and autumn of close calls has followed from the US Open at Pinehurst to the Olympics in Paris to the Amgen Irish Open at Royal County Down to the latest one at the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth. Time and time again, he became the fall guy, as if the curse which first manifested at Pinehurst followed him with dark intent.
US Open
Pinehurst, North Carolina (June), Second
Ten years since his last (of four) career Major titles, finally it seemed that McIlroy would end the drought only for him to give a helping hand to Bryson DeChambeau, who instead left the sandhills with the US Open trophy.
McIlroy had a strong grip on the trophy, leading by two with five holes to play. Redemption was his, only it wasn’t. In the process he self-inflicted raw wounds on the scar tissue that had built up for a decade.
The demons resurfaced over the final stretch of holes. On the par 3 15th, McIlroy’s 7-iron – too big – overshot the green to a waste area. Dead. He did well to chip it to just outside 30 feet but missed the par putt.
Still McIlroy remained in the lead until he missed from two-and-a-half feet on the 16th, his first miss inside five feet all tournament, for a three-putt bogey. And, on the 18th, after driving into the waste area down the left, his ball nestled into wire grass, McIlroy’s recovery came up short. He pitched to three feet nine inches and would miss the putt for a third bogey in four holes.
He lost out to DeChambeau by one, after the man with B.A.D. initialled on to his yardage book, made a par save for the ages of his own.
“That’s going to haunt Rory for the rest of his life,” claimed Nick Faldo of McIlroy’s implosion.
A devastated McIlroy departed Pinehurst before DeChambeau’s trophy presentation, and didn’t fulfil any media duties, as he kept his thoughts to himself.
The Olympic Games
Paris (August), Fifth
McIlroy started the final round four shots off the leaders but moved into contention with a magical run of five successive birdies that lifted him into a tie for third as he stood on the 15th tee of the par 4.
He had that look, that pep in his step, that signalled intent as he went for a sixth straight birdie. McIlroy’s drive split the fairway and, faced with a 140 yards approach to a flag positioned towards the front of a green guarded by water, he went flag chasing. To his cost.
The run of five birdies – and his quest for a medal – was ended with a poor shot that finished in the water. After taking a penalty drop, he hit his next shot to 40 feet and ran up a double bogey that ended any medal hopes. He would ultimately finish two shots behind bronze medallist Hideki Matsuyama.
“I feel like I’ve been golf’s Nearly Man for the last three years,” McIlroy said afterward. “I obviously want that tide to turn and go from the Nearly Man to back to winning golf tournaments. It’s all well and good saying I’m close and close and close. Once I actually step through the threshold and turn these near misses and close calls into wins, that’s what I need to do.”
Amgen Irish Open
Royal County Down (September), Second
McIlroy had destiny in his own hands, until he hadn’t. He entered the final round with the solo lead and, by the time he walked off the fourth green, had increased it to four strokes as he bid to become the first Irish players since Harry Bradshaw in 1949 to claim a second Irish Open title.
Fate had other plans.
Denmark’s Rasmus Hojgaard produced a stunning homeward run – which included a chip-in from a sand hill on the par 3 10th for birdie (“There was a flag in the way and the ball went in the hole. It was one of those lucky bounces I got there, he later admitted) and then holed-out from a greenside bunker for birdie on the 17th in a back nine of 31 strokes.
When McIlroy suffered a drop shot on the 15th and then bogeyed the 17th – three-putting – it meant he needed an eagle on the par 5 18th to force a play-off with Hojgaard. To his credit, he responded brilliantly to that bogey on the penultimate hole with a textbook play of the finishing hole, hitting a huge drive which threaded the fairway bunkers and then a 7-iron approach from 191 yards to 10 feet. Somehow, the eagle putt failed to drop. The Nearly Man, again.
“I didn’t really feel like I necessarily lost the tournament. I felt like Rasmus went out and won it,” said McIlroy.
BMW PGA Championship
Wentworth (September), Second
An eagle on the 17th hole of regulation offered McIlroy a gilt-edged opportunity to win the DP World Tour’s flagship event for a second time, having previously won in 2014.
However, McIlroy didn’t manage to birdie the par 5 18th which would have given him the outright lead (and victory), his putt missing on the low side, and playing partner Billy Horschel did – for a birdie-birdie finish – which left the pair in a three-way playoff with Thriston Lawrence, who exited at the first hole of sudden-death.
The duel between Horschel and McIlroy saw them produce superb approach shots to the 18th, each with an eagle putt. McIlroy missed his. Horschel sank his.
“These things happen. It’s just the game is testing me a little more than it has done in the past but that’s fine. All I can do is keep showing up and trying to play the golf that I’ve been playing and sooner or later it’s going to end up in a win,” claimed McIlroy.
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