Golf

Rory McIlroy straight back to action after ‘fine margins’ deny him Major glory

World number three set for the lucrative Travelers Championship as he seeks to bounce back after being pipped at the US Open

Rory McIlroy lines up a putt on the first green during the final round of the US Open at The Los Angeles Country Club where he was pipped by winner Wyndham Clark by a single shot. Photograph: Harry How/Getty Images
Rory McIlroy lines up a putt on the first green during the final round of the US Open at The Los Angeles Country Club where he was pipped by winner Wyndham Clark by a single shot. Photograph: Harry How/Getty Images
Philip Reid
Tue Jun 20 2023 - 03:30

Maybe it’s a good thing that Rory McIlroy returns to competitive action straight away this week, with the world number three’s appearance in The Travelers championship – another of the PGA Tour’s $20 million events – meaning there’s little time for licking any wounds inflicted by another near-miss in the US Open, when he came up a shot shy of Wyndham Clark.

In fact, McIlroy’s main focus moving forward is not so much the immediacy of The Travelers in Connecticut but, rather, next month’s 151st British Open championship at Royal Liverpool where he once again has an opportunity to end that drought in the Majors.

Not long after finishing his final round at Los Angeles Country Club, McIlroy was asked when the countdown to Royal Liverpool would begin. In truth, it had already started.

“Three minutes ago,” he replied, confirming his intention to play The Travelers and the Scottish Open in the meantime. “But I’m focused on making sure that I’m ready to go for Liverpool.”

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McIlroy talked again of the “fine margins” that exist in getting over the line in a Major and he should know better than most the reality of such a situation. There was the missed birdie chance on the eighth, the wedge shot on 14. Thin lines.

“I fought to the very end. I obviously never gave up. And I’m getting closer. The more I keep putting myself in these positions, sooner or later, it’s going to happen for me. I’ve just got to regroup and get focused for Hoylake in a few weeks’ time,” he said.

“I thought I did really well at executing my game plan, hitting a lot of fairways, hitting a lot of greens, again, what you should do at a US Open,” said McIlroy.

Interestingly, Paul McGinley – in his role as an analyst with American television network NBC – focused in on that game plan.

“He had a game plan and it was quite a conservative game plan, and that’s okay, but you’ve got to take advantage of the scoring holes and he didn’t do that . . . he showed a lot of resilience in a lot of ways. It’s not like it’s miles and miles away, but just two or three mistakes and [it was] not able to happen on the greens for him over the weekend.

“He started out putting well on days one and two but certainly slowed down hugely over the weekend with the putter,” said McGinley.

McIlroy isn’t slated for a pre-tournament interview at The Travelers (similar to his approach in advance of the US Open).

There are three Irish players in action in Connecticut with McIlroy joined in the field by Shane Lowry, whose tied-20th finish in the US Open moved him to 81st in the updated FedEx Cup standings, and Séamus Power.

Pádraig Harrington, who was tied-27th in LACC, reverts back to the Champions Tour stateside this week where the Dubliner is defending his Dicks Sporting Goods tournament title in Endicott, New York, where Darren Clarke is also competing.

On the DP World Tour, Tom McKibbin makes his first appearance since his breakthrough win in the Porsche European Open when he tees up in the BMW International Open. John Murphy is also in the field in Munich.

Philip Reid

Philip Reid

Philip Reid is Golf Correspondent of The Irish Times