THE FUTURE? He stands 5ft 9ins. He weighs 160 lbs. He has brown eyes of the twinkling kind. He is a Taurean, and celebrates his birthday on May 4th. He is just 20 years of age and, as we’ve discovered in this 109th edition of the US Open at Bethpage Black, Rory McIlroy has a game made for the majors.
Yesterday, McIlroy produced a final round 68 for 282, two over, to secure a top-10 finish in the season’s second major. As appetisers for what lies ahead in his career go, this was tasty. “It’s my first taste of the US Open, and I’d love to come back and win it one day,” said McIlroy, never one afraid to reach for the stars. Nothing is out of reach for him, it seems.
McIlroy, curly locks sneaking out from beneath his cap, stood in front of the clubhouse here and allowed himself an intake of breath; a moment of reflection after a week where he’d showed up and delivered and was allowed to wonder, “what if?” In the end, he wasn’t that far away at all.
“What have I learned about myself?” he wondered, before deciding this stop-go championship had only reaffirmed his own belief. “I’ve always felt I had the game for the majors. I can be patient when I want to be. I’m naturally aggressive (on the course) but majors are all about being patient and making pars.”
Indeed, McIlroy made just one bogey in his final round – spread as it was over two days – and a top-10 finish coming on the back of his top-20 finish in the US Masters only served to back up the assertion that he is very much moulded for the majors. “I don’t know if I have learned anything about myself but I know my game can stand up to major championships . . . it’s been a very solid week and I can take a lot from it.”
McIlroy’s final round saw him start at four-over for the championship and get to just one-over coming home, only for a bogey at the seventh – his 16th – to halt his charge, that dropped shot coming immediately after a missed birdie chance from eight feet on the previous hole.
Still, a top-10 finish in only a second appearance in a major as a professional is nothing to be sniffed at and has only whetted McIlroy’s appetite for next month’s British Open at Turnberry. Not that he can think that far ahead yet, as he boarded a plane last night directly for Munich where he is playing in this week’s BMW International.
Graeme McDowell birdied the 18th for a final round 74 for 284, four over, which left him in tied-18th position. For him, too, a case of what might have been? But the 29-year-old from Portrush was honest in his post-championship assessment, claiming: “I was never really on top of my game the whole week. I drove the ball very averagely and it caught up on me . . . taking the positives away from here, I’ve learnt to hang in there on a big, long golf course in a major championship without having my best swing with me.”
He added: “My iron play was great this week, my driving of the golf ball and my fairway wood play wasn’t even close to how I can play. I just haven’t been able to put it all together the last month or so. It’s been so close though.
“This has been a long grind of a week. It has been tough to come out and be focused every day. It’s really difficult to get any kind of momentum going . . . I’m going to have six days off, just kick back and get ready to go in France (next week).
“I’m very upbeat. If I can just tweak some of my long game I’m very close to playing great golf again. I’m excited about that, it’s a great time of the year to be playing well.”
McDowell’s next tournament is the French Open – in Paris next week – before he defends his Barclays Scottish Open title at Loch Lomond and, then, moves on to the British Open at Turnberry.
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