Scottie Scheffler never quite figures out Birkdale’s greens in a hard-fought Open defense.
Richard Heathcote, gETTY iMAGES
SOUTHPORT, ENGLAND | Winning a second green jacket in as many years at the Masters in April has been a high point of Rory McIlroy’s year to date and something of a contrast to his performance last week at Royal Birkdale, where he was on the fringes of contention in the Open Championship but never really a factor, finishing tied 40th. He wasn’t a factor at the U.S. Open either. He finished tied 32nd at Shinnecock Hills last month.
And repeating his win in the 2025 Open at Royal Portrush was too much for Scottie Scheffler, too. But the world No. 1 made a courageous defence of the title he had won at the famous Northern Ireland course, at one time clawing his way to within two strokes of Sam Burns, then the leader, after birdieing the 12th hole in the final round. He finished joint fourth, three strokes behind winner Ryan Fox.
Rory McIlroy never quite fired up on a fiery Birkdale.
Stuart Franklin, R&A via Getty Images
Scheffler was continually baffled by Birkdale’s greens. Time and again during his rounds of 68, 68, 70 and 67 he straightened up after a putt with a look of puzzlement on his face. Sometimes he misread his putts; and sometimes he hit bad putts. But he never gave up fighting.
“Today was a great effort,” Scheffler said Sunday. “I felt like I was doing the right things out there. I gave myself a lot of looks again today. It was just – I guess it just wasn’t my week. … I did a good job of staying patient and hit the ball really nice over the course of four days. Maybe yesterday was the only day I didn’t strike it as well as I would have liked to.”
Things didn’t start the way McIlroy, the second-ranked player in the world, would have wanted with a 2-over-par 72, which left him seven strokes behind Jackson Suber, the unexpected leader. He bounced back with a 67 Friday, but was too near the halfway cut for his liking. After Lucas Herbert and Sam Burns had rounds of 62 on Friday and then Fox had a similar score on Saturday, McIlroy’s third-round 69 left him eight strokes behind Burns, the leader.
McIlroy’s tart comments about Bryson DeChambeau’s two-stroke penalty the previous day attracted more attention than his golf. “Yeah, I think there’s no doubt that he improved the line of his backswing,” McIlroy said. “Again, it’s like, whether it was careless or whether it was intentional, I don't think it matters. Hopefully it was careless, but I think the two-shot penalty was justified for sure.”
McIlroy needed a supercharged outward half on Sunday to stand any chance of catching the leaders, a start, in fact, like the one Cameron Young made – four birdies in his first five holes and another on the ninth.
Instead McIlroy showed only occasional glimpses of inspiration for his first 15 holes and then ran up a double-bogey 6 on the 16th. He bounced back with a birdie on the 17th only to drop another stroke on the last for a 71.
“I just sort of stuck in neutral for most of the week,” McIlroy said. “Obviously shot a good one on Friday to get myself in for the weekend and back in it. Even par over the weekend is not going to get it done. I just felt like any time I got a little bit of momentum out there, I seemed to make a bogey. Yeah, just one of those weeks I couldn’t get it going.”
John Hopkins
