Rory McIlroy's Putter Goes Cold Again at British Open as Another Major Season Is Lost
HOYLAKE, England — Rory McIlroy’s entire British Open was encapsulated by a par putt that horseshoed around the cup and came back toward his feet on the 16th hole in Sunday’s final round.
It highlighted the struggles the 34-year-old endured not only this week but over his last winless 34 majors, a drought that may never come to an end. McIlroy remains stuck on four major championship titles.
All the jubilation and adulation McIlroy felt when he walked up the 18th fairway at Royal Liverpool 3,291 days ago, when he was just a couple of putts away from being proclaimed the Champion Golfer of the Year, is almost a decade old. While he finished in a tie for sixth this week at the 151st Open, the fatigue of another missed opportunity to win a major is starting to show.
With graying hair on his temples, McIlroy is bearing the weight of the drought that will last at least another 264 days, until Masters next April.
A lot can happen over those 264 days, but one thing that has to occur is for McIlroy to find a way to make the crucial putts in majors as he has done numerous times in regular events and previous majors that he has won and at times lost.
Rory McIlroy was left dumbfounded with his putter during most of the weekend at Royal Liverpool.
Kin Cheung/AP
“Solid performance,” McIlroy said after his Sunday 3-under 68. “Improved on my score every day. Yeah, I missed a few putts yesterday. Felt like I putted a bit better today. It was just hard. I needed to go out and shoot something 63, 64-ish, but really hard to do that in those conditions.”
Missed a few putts? Saturday’s third round included missed putts from 9, 10, 11, 13 (three), 19, 21, 23 and 24 feet. All but one of the misses was for a birdie.
While you can’t make everything, those are 10 missed putts from a reasonable distance in just one round.
McIlroy is prolific with 13 of the 14 clubs in his bag and while he has previously been a good putter previously—even great at times over this nine-year-plus stretch—Saturday’s third round said something completely different.
This season, McIlroy is in the top 10 of every strokes-gained category except putting, where he is tied for 83rd.
In the last five years his ranking in that stat has been 16th (2022), T66 (2021), 122nd (2020), T24 (2019) and 97th (2018).
While McIlroy’s driver is his sword, his putter is his anchor. Especially in this drought at majors, though he denies that it's at the forefront of his mind.
“I don't think that way," McIlroy said. “I think about trying to go and win a fourth FedEx Cup here in a couple weeks' time, go try and win a fifth Race to Dubai, go and win a fifth Ryder Cup. I just keep looking forward.”
That is a healthy approach, of course, but while FedEx Cups, Races to Dubai and Ryder Cups are great, they don’t compare to what Brian Harman experienced Sunday when he walked onto the 18th green as the Champion Golfer of the Year.
If McIlroy was honest, that is what really matters and as he flies to the U.S. he must be thinking "how can I rectify what has just happened again for the umpteenth time?"
There are no easy answers, but he should be honest to himself and say the putter is the problem and nothing else matters in golf until he gets that sorted out.