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As a distraught and distraught Rory McIlroy sped away from the Pinehurst players’ car park after the harshest defeat of his career, I was reminded of something Adam Scott said two years ago as he recalled his worst golf nightmare.
“I think it probably hurts more today than it did then,” the Australian said. We were discussing the moments 10 years ago when he blew a four-shot lead with four to play at the 2012 Open.
Scott had played 45 major tournaments without winning before that collapse, and he actually recovered to win the Masters the following year. But the Open Championship was the title he coveted more than any other.
“I remember feeling numb after that,” he admitted. “But it’s a real pity now that I don’t have a claret jug. I blew it.”
Although he has four major victories, McIlroy craves another success more than what is good for his health. The desire to get back beyond the line certainly plagued his mind and his game until the end of the US Open on Sunday.
This was his 37th attempt to add to his tally. The only man, other than Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus, to win four major titles by the age of 25, who had it within his reach.
He was here in the dusty, sweltering heat of North Carolina, on an iconic course at the height of the US Open Classic. Thirty-five years old, he is a prolific winner at every other level, but he bears scars.
A decade of heartache, and the demons built up through numerous near-misses from St. Andrews to Augusta, to Carnoustie, to Los Angeles, were certainly about to be banished.
But the demonic forces were too great. Collapse.
“He should have gone to the microphone and cried.”
He missed the green on the short 15th, missing a par putt at 16 of 30 inches. Back-to-back Ghosts leave the door open for the tough, indomitable Bryson DeChambeau.
And once McIlroy missed again from less than four feet at the end, the charismatic American ripped that door off its hinges with one of the greatest ups and downs from the sand the game has ever seen.
It was an extraordinary, gigantic, painful sport, but that would be no consolation to the hapless McIlroy.
In boxing, you can get knocked out cold, rugby players are routinely beaten, football players get splattered, and tennis stars are forced to serve, smash, run and slide all night long.
Golf is a walk, you can smoke between shots if you want. But there is no sport like it in dealing the most brutal psychological blows.
There’s no one to blame but yourself when things go wrong. I made mistakes, no one else did. It’s on you.
And when those disastrous moments come in the same round as some of the best golf games of your life — the game that put you on the brink of that elusive glory and throw it away, there’s nowhere to hide.
Even when you leave the scene, as McIlroy did, before the champion receives his trophy. The Northern Irishman was airborne, heading home to Florida, before a triumphant DeChambeau finished his press conference.
The hero talked and talked and talked, as he should have. But a devastated McIlroy did not speak to waiting reporters as Scott did in the wake of Lytham’s dismal collapse that saw Ernie Els emerge victorious.
In fact, McIlroy also failed to emulate Jan van de Velde who spoke after taking a seven-race finish at Carnoustie in 1999 when six of them would have given him the Claret Cup.
Greg Norman spoke after taking a six-shot lead ahead of Sir Nick Faldo at the 1996 Masters, and Dustin Johnson gave a citation after a three-shot that made him the latest to lose the 2015 US Open at Chambers Bay.
“He should have gone to the microphone and cried,” one veteran golfer told me. “Get it done, get it out of there. Everyone would have felt sympathy.”
Regardless, we have empathy – only the coldest of hearts cannot feel for a man. McIlroy was crushed.
It was the same for Colin Montgomery, who got past a New York state trooper after bogeying two doubles in the 2006 US Open final. Barry could have given the Scot a big hit at long last, and there was never another chance for him.
How does McIlroy recover from this? The tragic climax of his final outing was proof that, no matter how well he plays, he is mentally weak in the big moments.
There’s nothing wrong with that. He put himself out there, testing himself in the toughest golf environments. He does it over and over again and is good enough to compete over and over again.
This was his sixth consecutive top 10 at the US Open and he is now the only man to finish solo runner-up two years in a row.
It takes courage to put yourself out there, fight but fail and come back off the canvas and do it again.
“He has raw ability, what about mental ability?”
But this defeat is so brutal it raises questions about the future. What happens next time he has a specialty at hand? How can he deny such painful memories?
More importantly, what does it do to change the text?
McIlroy has always been a one-man band on the course. He knows best and his best is often great.
He loves the fact that he walks down the halls with his childhood Belfast friend, Harry Diamond, by his side.
He pinches himself in such a scenario – together they have lifted numerous trophies – Ryder Cups, Players’ Cups, World Golf Championships, and season long titles on both sides of the pond.
Many argue that he should have an experienced bus guy at his side, someone who simply will not allow a collapse like the one we witnessed here in North Carolina to occur.
Scott had the great Steve Williams at his side at Lytham. It’s not the caddy who’s missing the kind of important youngster who sealed McIlroy’s fate at Pinehurst.
But they play a key role and Williams was invaluable the following April at Augusta when Scott became the first Australian to win the Masters.
No one knows if McIlroy would have been better off with a different holder, or a different mind, coach or media director for that matter. Not even him.
But these questions should certainly be on the agenda as he seeks to develop a recovery plan. Something has to change radically because you can’t keep doing the same things and expect a changed result. Madness.
DeChambeau stated that McIlroy “is going to win a lot of Grand Slams” just as Woods said in April that it was only a matter of time before the Ulsterman completed his Grand Slam career by winning the Masters.
Of course he has raw ability but what about mental ability?
What Pinehurst emphasized is that there are absolutely no guarantees that he will get fifth place. And the resulting pain will continue – just ask Adam Scott.
Scott used his defeat at Lytham to ignite the fire that brought Masters glory. If only for McIlroy. It won’t be that easy.
But he has to get back on the horse. And try to make sure he doesn’t get his teeth kicked. once again.
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