Sunday was no different from the previous three days at Portrush. A little warmer, a little louder and a little more hopeful, the noise rumbled in the distance before Rory McIlroy even appeared at the first tee for his final round of the 153rd Open.
The cheering began as he left the putting green close to the clubhouse. Rory! Rory! Rory! It continued with another group of fans as he walked across the footbridge to the side of the first tee and grew louder when he stepped out into the three-sided stand that wrapped around the tee box.
More like a raucous Ryder Cup greeting than the Open, McIlroy must have known that the outcome of the next five hours was probably out of his hands. It wasn’t all about him.
His challenge was to try to eat into the lead of Scottie Scheffler in the expectation that the American would continue to pick up birdies over the course of a perfect day at the Dunluce links.
RM Block
In the end, he fell short of the sort of numbers that earned him a course record 61 when he was 16.
“I tried as best as I could to keep my emotions in check, especially walking up the last there and that reception,” said McIlroy afterwards.
“Yeah, look, it’s been an awesome week. I’ve gotten everything I wanted out of this week, apart from a Claret Jug, and that’s just because one person was just a little bit better than the rest of us.”
For McIlroy to succeed, the world number one would have had to blow a four-shot lead on the field and six shots on him and go into the history books as one of the biggest final-day implosions in golf.
It looked unlikely and even as McIlroy sped off to birdie the Par-5 second hole, word filtered through just as he was sinking the short putt that the American had made birdie on the first, having hit an approach to 16in.
That sucked some air out of the early round buoyancy of the crowd that lived every shot.
But throughout, McIlroy’s body language was hugely positive and the enormous galleries, 20 or 30 people deep around some of the tee boxes and greens, seemed to nudge him forward.
He had two more birdies to make the turn in 34, but by then the word he had used during the week to describe Scheffler – “inevitable” – seemed to be following him around.
When he duffed a wedge at the 10th hole, he stared intently at the blade as if it had taken on a mind of its own. Then a wry smile.
Had he been watching the scoreboard leading up to the turn, he would have seen Scheffler had opened the door on eight with a double bogey before slamming it closed with a birdie on nine to also turn in 34.
But the wedge blooper was costly for McIlroy, a double bogey six and sent him into an animated conversation with caddie Harry Diamond.
It was becoming one of those days when the elevated goals and aspirations for the day, standing on the first tee with the crowd chanting his name, were turning into something more prosaic.
A missed eagle putt on 12 gifted him an easy birdie and as he walked between green and tee to 13, he high-fived some children, who had their arms outstretched.
The electric charge, the championship-winning vitality, had dimmed. Playing for place, an entirely different energy, had seeped in.
“I think there’s a lot of gratitude, and yeah, a lot of pride,” said McIlroy. “A lot of pride that I am from these shores, and in part with the way I’ve played and advocated for this little country, the Open has returned here and it’s been an amazing venue. Hopefully, the R&A keep coming back.”
The home crowd hung with him to the end because, well, it was McIlroy. He birdied 15 after an approach to 13 feet to come home in 35 for an overall 69 and tied for seventh.
McIlroy didn’t give them what they wanted, but he gave them plenty and as he walked up into the giant stadium finish at 18, it ended just as it had started: Rory! Rory! Rory!
