NORTH BERWICK, SCOTLAND | After Rory McIlroy’s head had drooped so dramatically as Bryson DeChambeau holed his U.S. Open-winning 4-footer, the recovery process for the Northern Irishman went as follows.
Far from finding himself some woodland bolthole, he walked the streets and High Line of Manhattan with earphones firmly in place and cap well down. Initially, he could not think beyond those missed short putts at Pinehurst's 16th and 18th holes, which had cost him what would have been his first major-championship victory in 10 years. Eventually, he put them down to the way he had let his mind wander. He had been too aware of DeChambeau instead of staying in his own bubble.
After a couple of days, the focus was less on his golf than life in general. As McIlroy would explain at last week’s Genesis Scottish Open at the Renaissance Club, his thought process was such that he had decided that his golf and life had been overly intertwined. By way of an example, he said that the moment he stepped out of his house in Jupiter, Florida, he would find himself hitting practice shots. (He hastened to add that he would not be able to do the same at the home which he and wife, Erica, are having built at Wentworth Club west of London. Improbable though it sounds on an estate which is all about golf, the home in question is not sitting on top – or at least directly on top – of any of the three courses.
From there, the 35-year-old, who eventually tied for fourth at the Scottish Open, went on to say, “Would you believe that I haven’t had a holiday in the last four or five years?”
As to where that last holiday was, he had to confess that he did not have a clue. Now, though, he is thinking of a winter vacation in the mountains and seeing his daughter, Poppy, who will turn 4 next month, on skis.
Still on much the same theme, he said that he had made the mistake of failing to celebrate the tournaments he had won in the past four or five years – eight combined on the PGA and DP World tours since the start of 2022 alone – and four top-three finishes in majors in the same period, which he would not have wanted to celebrate.
Though some might suggest that McIlroy’s major career – victories in the U.S. Open and Open Championship and two PGA Championship titles from 2011 to 2014 – could be behind him after so many painful misses, he was soon creating the impression that the reverse could apply. Where there are plenty of players in their 30s who are beginning to fall out of love with tour life, he wanted people to know that he still gets a kick out of travelling the world, of eating in different restaurants, and of tasting new wines.
Of course, he had been quizzed at the start of his week in Scotland about the headlines he had made on the Monday after the U.S. Open – “Rory McIlroy snubs interview and storms away from Pinehurst” for one. Did he have any regret about walking off as he did?
There was a glint in his eye before he delivered his reply: “Absolutely not! OK, it would have been good because you people would have been able to write something about it or have a few quotes from me.” Then he laughed, with some of the writers laughing with him and others not. “No offence, but you guys were the least of my worries at that point.”
So loyal a band are those fans that it came as no surprise to learn that one of them had come over on the ferry from Belfast overnight on Wednesday before driving 100 miles and more to watch his player shoot an opening 65.
Bearing in mind the circumstances, was that not fair enough? After all, if you are two strokes ahead with six holes to play and you miss a couple of all-important short putts, do you actually need to say anything to let everyone know how you are feeling?
A member of the DP World Tour hierarchy put it like this: “He shouldn’t have done it, but they don’t fine players on the PGA Tour for doing it, and neither do we fine our guys. What we have on the DP World Tour is a rule stating the players should show ‘maximum goodwill towards the media.’ However, such is the admiration for Rory that no one on either tour was inclined to take the matter any further. After all, it was not a recurring sin on the player’s part.”
Far from it. One official after another talked of how McIlroy was an obvious candidate when they needed a favour. “He always goes the extra mile,” said a member of the PGA Tour team. Another mentioned a day in Malaysia when the then-18-year-old McIlroy had talked rather more about the play of the little local lad with whom he had been paired in the pro-am than his own golf.
On a not-too-different tack, it was during the course of last week’s pro-am that he took time out to speak to Scott Stewart, a victim of motor neurone disease who, a year ago, was playing to a scratch handicap but is now confined to a wheelchair. There was nothing unusual about McIlroy going out of his way to chat to this former teaching professional. But you had to be struck by his disarmingly relaxed approach. It came to him as easily as golf itself.
Later on, he conceded that he had been hugely affected by that conversation, saying that not a day went by when he didn’t feel like “the luckiest guy in the world to get up every morning and be able to follow my dream.”
Putting aside the black marks he picked up at the U.S. Open, McIlroy did not leave the car park at Pinehurst without talking to Harry Diamond, his friend-cum-caddie.
Again at the Renaissance, it was typical of McIlroy that when he was asked what he thought of Bob MacIntyre’s journey across the last 12 months, he never volunteered an opinion on how the Scot had taken off for his faraway home in Oban after winning the RBC Canadian Open instead of going on to Jack Nicklaus’ Memorial Tournament. Rather did he concentrate on MacIntyre’s mounting improvement. “He’s a great lad, and I think everyone’s really happy to see the success he’s had.”
McIlroy would understand MacIntyre well, for he, too, longed for home when he first went to the States. In an interview with GGP at the 2019 WGC-HSBC Champions in China, McIlroy revealed how much it meant to him to have married a girl who had such a good understanding of him and his career: “Professional golf is such a lonely pursuit. I’ve always been able to share what I’ve done with my parents, but now I’ve got Erica. She makes the good days better and the bad days not so bad.”
With Diamond as downcast as McIlroy was himself, McIlroy put a reassuring arm around his caddie’s shoulder. Little did he realise, then, that Diamond was going to be on the receiving end of some of the post-championship flak, but there was something he wanted him to know.
“What I said,” he told GGP, “was that we had missed a few opportunities but that we wouldn’t miss the next one.”
That’s what his fans will want to hear going into this week’s Open.
Come the evening, he did the same journey in reverse.
E-MAIL LEWINE
Top: Rory McIlroy faces the media before the Scottish Open.
Harry How, Getty IMAGES