The good news for Rory McIlroy was that he had pulled within one stroke of final-round leader Bryson DeChambeau.
The other news was that McIlroy suddenly found himself playing putt-putt at a major golf tournament and the best thing he could do was laugh off the seething inner frustration.
McIlroy, who’s been through a lot off the course in recent weeks, appeared to be on the verge of an athletic breakdown on the fourth hole.
He had a great shot to reach the green but as golfer after golfer learned the hard way at Pinehurst, even the best shots could end up in serious trouble.
As McIlroy walked toward the green, fans were stunned to watch his almost perfectly placed ball roll, and roll and roll.
It briefly paused near the flag, worked its way off the green, slid past a sand bunker, and wasn’t done rolling.
McIlroy’s ball rolled so far that TV announcers appeared to be on the verge of laughing while fans’ loud cheers turned to eerie silence.
“A good iron,” a commentator initially said.
Then the tone completely changed.
“Just on the precipice and it’s going to come down here,” the commentator said.
He added: “Ooh. Listen to that crowd — they’ve seen that so many times.”
It then got even worse.
“It’s a terrible break,” the commentator said. “Instead of in the bunker, it sits down in a little depression there.”
McIlroy found his way out of the native area and back onto the green.
But a putt that could have found the bottom of the cup rolled out, forcing McIlroy to kneel down and hang his head in total disbelief.
“Never again, Pinehurst,” one fan tweeted. “What a joke.”
“US Open golf, nothing better,” a second fan posted.
“You should not be getting punished for hitting it to 20 feet on a par 5,” a third fan wrote.
“This is why the US Open is possibly the worst major,” a fourth fan said. “Pro players continuously hit good shots and are constantly punished because the major has to be ‘hard.’ Obviously don’t want 20 under but the luckiest golfer shouldn’t win, either.”
McIlroy was two strokes behind DeChambeau when his most painful hole of the tournament was finally complete.
But he was far from the only golfer struggling to deal with Pinehurst, and he was still in sight of his first major championship title in years.
DeChambeau also dealt with a hard, fast course on Sunday and was 1-over during the final round after five holes.
Before he started trying to fend off McIlroy, the 2020 US Open winner stole a quick glance at the trophy.
News Summary:
- ‘What a joke’ – One shot by Rory McIlroy painfully captures how difficult Pinehurst is as best golfers in world look like amateurs at US Open putt-putt
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