Rory McIlroy was 7-over par on the back nine for the week.
WARREN LITTLE, GETTY IMAGES
SOUTHAMPTON, NEW YORK | A surprising statistic in a game full of them is that Rory McIlroy won his first U.S. Open and the first of his six major championships 15 years ago, in June 2011. He did so at Congressional by eight strokes at age 22. Between then and now, though he was victorious in the 2012 PGA, the 2014 Open and PGA and the 2025 and ’26 Masters, there was no realistic chance of McIlroy adding to this tally of major championships at Shinnecock Hills.
McIlroy, who missed the cut here in 2018, could not put together two good halves of golf last week and it was the inward nine holes that perplexed him more often than not. He was 1-under par on the front nine for the week and 7-over par for the back nine. The greatest contrast between the two halves came in McIlroy’s third round when he played the front nine in 33 and the back nine in 40.
Who Else Won
HotelPlanner TOUR
John Catlin
READ MORE | RESULTS
EPSON TOUR
Lauren Olivares
LADIES EUROPEAN TOUR
Aunchisa Utama
“Yeah, I think it won the battle over me at this point,” McIlroy said after rounds of 69, 71, 73 and 73 left him at 6-over-par 286, tied 32nd. “I’ll obviously rue the back nine yesterday. I got myself to 2-under par for the tournament after nine yesterday, and then the wheels came off and [I] played a really bad back nine. I sort of shot myself out of the tournament then. Obviously was really disappointed coming away from the course last night.”
The world No. 2 now turns his attention to golf in the U.K. and particularly the Open at Royal Birkdale in four weeks. “I’ll be playing some links golf this week probably coming up, but yeah, it’s my favorite time of the year to go back home and play, play the Open, and I get to spend a bit of time back there.
“This was not too dissimilar to an Open Championship in terms of how the golf course started to play over the weekend, but a bit of links golf over the next couple weeks will be nice.”
Tyrrell Hatton and Justin Rose, two of McIlroy’s Ryder Cup teammates, played their best golf of the week on Sunday. Hatton’s 67, after rounds of 74, 68 and 72, left him at 1-over 281 and tied seventh, one stroke fewer than Rose, who was tied 11th after rounds of 71, 70, 73 and 68.
John Hopkins
