Rory McIlroy misses two putts inside 4 feet at U.S. Open, extends major drought

PINEHURST, N.C. – Rory McIlroy says he would go through 100 Sundays of major-championship agony to get his hands on one more major title. He isn’t quite approaching that number, but the heartbreak might be reaching a boiling point.

McIlroy’s week at Pinehurst No. 2 will go down as another agonizing defeat, as he missed two putts inside 4 feet in his last three holes Sunday to finish one stroke back of U.S. Open winner Bryson DeChambeau.

McIlroy finished at 5-under 275 in the Carolina Sandhills, one back of DeChambeau’s winning total.

DeChambeau is now a two-time major winner, adding to his 2020 victory at Winged Foot. McIlroy is left to lament another one that got away.

McIlroy, who also finished runner-up by a stroke at last year’s U.S. Open, led by two strokes at Pinehurst after four birdies in a five-hole stretch around the turn Sunday – Nos. 9, 10, 12 and 13. He was vibing and thriving. Then he made bogey on three of his last four holes to fall short at a U.S. Open once again. He declined to meet the media afterward, quickly returning to his courtesy car and departing the premises.

It was a dramatic turn of events for the four-time major winner, whose 10-year winless drought in major championships has included a cinematic Rolodex of narrow defeats. There was last year’s runner-up by a stroke at Los Angeles Country Club, which featured a mostly clean final-round 70 with just one bogey, but it was fatal – via a mis-hit approach at the par-5 14th. That was a year after the 2022 Open Championship, where he hit all 18 greens in regulation in the final round at St. Andrews but took 36 putts, finishing two strokes back of Cam Smith.

After his near-miss at LACC, McIlroy told his manager Sean O’Flaherty that it was just like the final round at St. Andrews. If those stung, this one at Pinehurst could have felt like an open wound.

Sunday’s downturn began at the gnarly par-3 15th, as McIlroy’s tee shot went long of the green; he chipped to 31 feet past the hole and two-putted for bogey. Then came the true heartbreak moments on the par-4 16th (three-putt bogey from 25 feet, as his par putt spun out from 2 feet, 11 inches) and par-4 18th, where he missed his tee shot into wiregrass left of the fairway, hacked out to just off the front of the green, chipped to just past the hole and lipped out from 3 feet, 9 inches.

McIlroy has now recorded six straight top-10 finishes at the U.S. Open, the longest active streak. He has notched 11 top-five finishes in majors since 2015, the most of any player without a win. What more can he do? He trailed by three into the final round at Pinehurst but started fast with a 21-foot birdie on No. 1, and his four birdies in five holes around the turn reminded of a vintage McIlroy that won two majors by eight-shot margins in his early 20s. That youthful, aggressive McIlroy has turned into a more prudent, patient McIlroy at U.S. Opens; he has said that after missing the cut in three straight U.S. Opens (2016-18), he vowed to implement a more disciplined approach to this championship.

He might lament his second shot at the par-5 fifth hole Sunday, where he striped a 5-iron that landed some 25 feet short-right of the hole, just a few yards from the preferred target, but caught the turtleback green’s front slope and funneled down into a nasty waste area. He played his third into a front bunker, leading to a bogey. It was nine holes earlier than last year’s par-5 mishap in the final round at LACC, but it’s another par-5 bogey that led to a one-stroke U.S. Open defeat.

McIlroy has preached the importance of being 100% committed to a good attitude at this U.S. Open, and his impressive rebound from that bogey is a testament to that zen-like demeanor. He didn’t look to get fazed by his short miss at No. 16, and he got up and down from a greenside bunker at the par-3 17th to maintain a share of the lead to the final hole. But his tee shot went left on 18, leading to that gutting miss on a slippery, downhill par putt from inside 4 feet that would have ultimately forced a two-hole aggregate playoff.

Again, he was in it until the 72nd hole. Yet it’s another Sunday without a major title, the continuation of a perplexing drought that leaves one wondering: how many more of these can he take?