At 3:40pm local time on Saturday, Rory McIlroy sent a shockwave Shinnecock Hills. After missing the sixth green to the right, McIlroy pulled the ball and rolled a 66-foot bomb for birdie. Ten minutes later, he put another circle on his scorecard, his third in a row, and was firmly in the mix at this US Open, sending the Long Island crowd into a frenzy.
McIlroy, who has said one of his remaining career goals is to win a U.S. Open on a U.S. Open course, walked away Saturday with the trophy — and eventual winner Wyndham Clark – in his views. It was all before him, the next box to tick on a legendary career resume.
Twenty hours later, Rory McIlroy was just trying to get off Long Island as quickly as possible.
“You try to come out here positive today and try to build up the energy to put a good one out there, but a couple of bogeys on the front nine, I was just trying to get to the 18th green,” McIlroy said with a laugh Sunday after finishing at six par for the tournament.
That’s how quickly things can change at a US Open at Shinnecock, especially when it starts playing like a US Open.
McIlroy made the turn on Saturday two shots under and just four shots behind Clark, who had opened with a bogey behind him. McIlroy had remained in the fray all week up to that point. He had taken punches from William Flynn’s design, wiped the blood from his forehead and punched back. He had dropped putts, but also made some long-range birdies and gave himself a 27-hole chance to play.
The breakup happened in a hurry.
McIlroy bombed his drive 365 yards down the par-4 10th fairway to the green. But just as he did in the second round, he sent a wedge over the back of the green and made bogey. Three-shot bogeys at 12 and 14 followed to drop him to even par. Then, on the par-4 15th, McIlroy missed a two-foot putt. Another bogey at 18 brought him home at 40 and gave him nine shots on Clark entering the final round. By the time McIlroy teed off on the 18th green on Saturday, that patented bounce was long gone from his stride. The energy he sparked in the top of the ninth either evaporated or was transferred to Scottie Scheffler, who was making a charge of his own. McIlroy rubbed his face and exhaled. A long and arduous battle with the wind at Shinnecock had left him exhausted and facing an open US Open Sunday with little on the line but the faint hope of doing the impossible.
It had been there for the taking and was gone before he knew it had slipped.
“I think it won the battle on me at this point,” McIlroy said on Sunday.
“I think looking back on the whole week, I’m definitely going to be disappointed with the back nine yesterday. I got myself two under par for the tournament after the back nine yesterday, and then the wheels came off and played a really bad back. Then I was out of the tournament. Obviously, I was really disappointed to be out of the course last night.”
The six-time major champion arrived on Sunday hoping to mount an early charge when the wind was down – to do as Tommy Fleetwood did in 2018, post a number from the back of the pack and see if it’s good enough.
But the roars of Rory he hoped to bring never materialized. He made a ho-hum par at the first and then missed a seven-foot putt for par at the second. Another bogey after a shaky approach on No. 3 put him 11 shots behind Clark and meant it was time for McIlroy to hang up his US Open boxing gloves and make a quick exit. He turned in a four-over 39 and then, in the kind of cruel twist golf likes to deliver, McIlroy found something that would have helped his cause at the US Open – just a day late.
For the first time all week, McIlroy hit the right approach to the 10th green and made birdie. He followed that up with another bird at age 11. A day earlier, that would have put McIlroy at four over and right on Clark’s heels. A day later, it was nothing more than a small round of applause from the Long Island faithful.
“I could have made the back nine with that start for sure yesterday,” McIlroy said.
Eight years ago, McIlroy left Shinnecock Hills on Friday after jumping into the sea. It was then she he vowed to become a more comfortable player on hard, US Open-style courts rather than the softer PGA Tour setups. In the years since, McIlroy has become one of the best US Open players of the last decade. From 2019-2025, he had six top 10 finishes and two US Open runner-up finishes. When he holed a 66-footer for birdie on Saturday, it looked like Rory McIlroy’s next US Open moment might finally arrive. His plan and patience had put him in a position to hunt down Clark and put the coveted Shinnecock jelly on his wall.
Shinnecock then delivered a grass maker and McIlroy let go as the sun set over Peconic Bay on Saturday. By the time he had stayed, his US Open dreams had been dashed, and all that was left was an 18-hole walk to nowhere at Shinnecock and questions of what might have been if he had been able to stay in the fight just a little longer.
