McIlroy on Major pain: St Andrews took me longer to get over
Rory McIlroy
Rory McIlroy made his first PGA Tour ace and admitted his US Open near-miss hurt far less than losing The Open at St Andrews last year.
The world number three holed a five-iron from 215 yards at the eighth en route to a rollercoaster, two-under 70 that left him eight shots behind leader Denny McCarthy in the Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands.
His first US ace came just days after the third major championship runner-up finish of his career at Los Angeles Country Club.
But he insisted finishing a shot behind Wyndham Clark in LA hurt far less than getting overhauled by Cameron Smith on the back nine at the Old Course last year.
“It was disappointing at the time,” McIlroy told Sky Sports. “But in my mind, I quickly turned to all the positives that were obviously there last week.
“This one's been a little easier to get over than St Andrews last year. St Andrews took me a while.
“Sitting on the 10th tee at St Andrews with a three-shot lead, obviously not knowing what Cam was going to do, that was hard to take.
“But Wyndham played a great back nine of golf and he held on well and hit some remarkable recovery shots and made some great saves. And, you know, the two shots into the 14th.
“Again, as I said on Sunday, the two things I’ll rue from that day are the putt on eight and the wedge shot into 14. I felt like I did everything I wanted to do.
“When you can't really pick it apart that much, you’ve just got to give credit to the guy that beat you and move on and being able to get back to playing straightaway this week. It's sort of nice. It means I'm not dwelling on stuff and I just go out there and try and play some more good golf.”
McIlroy said on Sunday he’d take 100 similar disappointments to get that elusive fifth Major and he hasn’t changed his mind.
“I'd love to turn up to a major and win one by eight like I’ve done before,” he said. “I mean, that would be a really nice way to do it. But to be at the business end of those tournaments … you know, the thing I really pleased about over the last couple of years is I've been doing it more consistently.
“That was my fifth top 10 in a row at the US Open. I had three missed cuts before that. So I'm getting to play Major championship golf really, really well. And that's a huge positive.
“Like I’m playing here this week and I’m playing the Scottish Open but I'm excited for Hoylake in a few weeks’ time.”
As for his first ace in the US, he said: “As hole-in-ones go, I've had them in the past where it has been like an okay shot and you get a little lucky. That was the best shot of the day that I hit.
“Obviously a bonus for it to go in the hole, but it was really cool. I played pretty averagely up until that point. Felt like that hole-in-one got me going a little bit. Birdied the next couple of holes after that and got me into the tournament a bit.”
He played the back nine in level par to end the day tied for 46th, eight shots behind McCarthy, who made ten birdies in a bogey-free 60 to lead by two shots from Keegan Bradley and Adam Scott.
“Hole-in-ones and great shots, and I also made five bogeys, which was the sloppy bit of the day,” McIlroy said. “I don't even know if I made five bogeys during the whole U.S. Open last week. I think I did, but I just need to tidy that up.
“Making five birdies and an eagle out there would be good enough to be in the Top 5. I just need to cut out the mistakes.”
Shane Lowry’s bogey-free 64 left him tied for fifth, while Seamus Power was tied 68th after a 69.
In the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Baltusrol, Leona Maguire’s two-under 69 left her tied for sixth, three shots behind South Africa’s Lee-Ann Pace, who shot a bogey-free, five-under 66 to lead by one stroke from Chinese pair Ruoning Yin and Xiyu Lin and Canada’s Brooke Henderson.
Stephanie Meadow was tied 44th after making two birdies, two bogeys and a double bogey seven at the 17th in a two-over 73.
