The world No 2 described his performance as ‘solid’ but suspect putting means major drought will enter a 10th yearNine years; 3,288 days. That’s the length of time which has now elapsed since Rory McIlroy won a major championship. The omens had been good coming into Hoylake, the expectation as high as ever, but in the end a final round of 68 left him seven shots behind the winner, Brian Harman.There were moments, early in rounds three and four, where it looked as if McIlroy might make a charge. But in the end any promise sputtered out in the rain and seasoned Rory watchers will have seen this movie before. In a way it’s like the Godfather 3, only inverted....
Northern Irishman, in Beatles shoes, had plenty of chances during round three but failed to make the most of themIt feels like Rory McIlroy has been doing this to us for practically his whole career. Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory and victory from defeat – like someone who gives you butterflies on a first date and then doesn’t text back, leaving us tossing and turning in our sleep; sweating, ponderous, infuriated.But that is part of the charm, the contract we all unwittingly sign when following somebody like McIlroy. At last year’s Open Championship at St Andrews, he held a joint four-shot lead over the rest of the field after the third round, before falling away as Cameron Smith...
Rory McIlroy fared better than his high-profile playing partners, but all three will feel frustration after sloppy errorsThe first tee at the Royal Liverpool Golf Club felt like the place to be at 2.59pm on Thursday afternoon. There, a massed crowd waited patiently for Jon Rahm, Justin Rose and the man known simply as Rory to get their tournament under way at the Open. There were cheers, there was hush and, after the players sent their drives bursting into the sunshine, a slightly lubricated tribute could be heard from behind the cordon: “This is a lovely group!”In the end, the wisdom of the crowd turned out to be largely misplaced. This inaugural gathering of the “Three Rs” failed to match...
The Northern Irishman won at Royal Liverpool in 2014 but has now endured a frustrating nine years without winning a majorOn the evening of 20 July 2014, Rory McIlroy bounced out of the media centre at Royal Liverpool Golf Club. He cradled the Claret Jug, not long after doing likewise to his tearful mother on the 18th green.The final question to McIlroy in that Open champion’s press conference involved Augusta National and how the Northern Irishman planned to establish a level of comfort before the Masters of the following April. That theme ignored the US PGA Championship, which McIlroy had added to his roll of honour by mid-August. With four major titles to his name, McIlroy was on a rocket-fuelled...
All evidence suggests the Northern Irishman is close to winning another major – he just needs to believe it himselfRory McIlroy spent much of 2013 in professional turmoil. By the time he shot 79 in his first round at the Open Championship, he admitted to feeling “brain dead” on the Muirfield links. He had already withdrawn from the Honda Classic. An equipment change was taking its toll. So, too, was a weight of expectation created in part by an eight‑shot win at the 2012 US PGA Championship.By autumn of 2014, McIlroy had added another two major championships to his CV. He admitted last week to watching YouTube videos of the Open of nine years ago, where the range of shot-making...