Oakmont, Pennsylvania – Rory McILroy put an end to a tumultuous week at the US Open with his most pointed in more than a month, a Sunday of 3 under 67 under six birdies.
He was the lowest score of the day McILroy went to the clubhouse in Oakmont Country Club. But after starting the 74-72-74 championship, he left it 7 on the peer and intended for a finish outside the Top 20, after his presentation T47 in the PGA championship.
“Physically, I have the impression that my game is there,” McILroy told journalists after his fourth round. “It is just mentally to put me in the right state of mind to get the most out of me.”
One of the main reasons for optimism was the pace that McILroy found with his driver on Sunday. He struck 11 of the 14 regulation fairways while making an average of 321.5 yards at driving distance.
It came after fought with the club earlier in the week. After its former driver was considered more in line with the PGA championship, McILroy tried a new Taylormade model at the Canadian RBC open to disastrous results and missed the cup. He moved to one of his former Taylorades for the United States Open.
“Really encouraged with the driver and how I led him too. It is not necessarily the driver, it’s more me and in a way where my swing was. I feel like I have a very good feeling in my swing with the driver, which was great. I hope I can continue next week.”
The traveler’s championship next week, the Connecticut signing event, is McILroy’s latest PGA Tour event before returning to Europe before a big July.
McILroy will be under the spotlight all week in his northern native Ireland when the open championship is played in Royal Portrush. He was played for the last time in 2019, and McILroy was a big favorite before his friend Shane Lowry from Ireland brought glory instead.
“I already want to play an open in Portrush and remember at least these feelings and feelings for which I was probably not prepared at the time,” said McILroy. “Yeah, and obviously, it will be the first time in a way in public at home after winning the masters. It should be a very good week.”
He added that he hoped to celebrate with his compatriots with the green jacket and the Bordeaux jug.
“Listen, if I can’t motivate myself to get up for an open house championship, then I don’t know what can motivate me,” said Mcilroy. “Yeah, as I said, I just need to put myself in the right state of mind. I probably did not go there in recent weeks.
“But as I said, get home and have a few weeks off before that, we hope I feel refreshed and rejuvenated, will do me again in the right place.”
McILroy took a different tone with the media than on Saturday, when he met journalists for the first time since the start of the championship. After the interviews of snobing on the four days of the PGA championship and the first two of the US Open, McILroy said he thought he had gained the right to transmit media requests more often.
“It’s more frustration with you,” he said on Saturday. “I’m just, yes, I don’t know. I have – I have been totally available for a few years, and I don’t say – maybe you, but maybe more fair.”
Long a favorite of fans on both sides of the Atlantic, McILroy was widely celebrated when he won the Masters in April to finish the big career slam. Since then, he said that he had been taking things in tournament by tournament and suggested that he could use a little rest.
“Listen, I climbed my Everest in April, and I think that after doing something like that, you have to come back, and you have to look for another mountain to climb,” he said on Sunday. “An open to Portrush is certainly part of it.”
–Adam Zielonka, media of land level
