As if to tease him, the Claret Jug, in all its glory, was showcased by the first tee. Rory McIlroy couldn’t help but notice it. He gave it a quick look, and then strode on to get on with his job. So close, but so out of reach.
If the title itself was already out of reach, there were other goals to reach for. In golf, winning is the main deal; but there are also consolation prizes, targets to be aimed at.
Later, he admitted as much. “I was going out thewith the goal of trying to get world ranking points, trying to get Race to Dubai points, FedEx Cup points . . . . I sort of forgot about the Claret Jug and just tried to focus on finishing as high as I (could), and felt like I did that pretty well. I can be positive about my game going going into the last Major of the year,” said McIlroy.
If this was a case of arriving late to the party, only to find it already in full swing, McIlroy’s closing 67 for a 72-holes total of 280, four-under-par, gave the Northern Irishman yet another top-10 finish a Major. He could have some regrets, mainly with his putter, and the frustration had manifested itself in Saturday’s third round when a toss of his 3-wood to the ground after an approach shot to the 16th had caused the head to snap away.
There were no issues with his golfing tools or with the player himself in a final round that saw McIlroy earn a plethora of birdie chances on the outward run. He made some, didn’t make others. But tee-to-green, his game was good. After a tap-in for birdie on the second, and a missed six footer on the third that slid by the edge, McIlroy called in his caddie JP Fitzgerald on the fourth.
“What do you think of this JP?” A quick look at the line and a couple of words later, McIlroy digested the advice, stood over the six footer but, again, it burned the edge of the hole. But birdies on the fifth, sixth and ninth holes had a pep in his step. If the trophy was out of his reach, McIlroy was at least making inroads in that in to claim order of merit points on both sides of the Atlantic.
Once again, as he’d done for the first three rounds, McIlroy failed to play the back nine under par. This time, though, he played it in level par to sign for an impressive 67 - his best round of the championship - and an awareness that his game is in good shape heading into next week’s US PGA at Baltusrol in New Jersey.
Afterwards, there was an acceptance that he had gone into the weekend in a futile game of catch-up on the Big Two. “There’s no way I would have gotten the scores that those guys are on,” he conceded, adding: “So I feel like I’ve done pretty well this week considering everything.”
Certainly, as McIlroy stood talking to us after his round, there was no sign of any desperation about where he is going. And perhaps he could take just a little solace that he had finished in front of the other
“I’m happy with where my game’s at. All I can do is keep plugging away. I feel like it’s definitely heading in the right direction. Bar the missed cut at the US Open, my results have been decent the last few times I’ve played. I mean, win at the Irish Open, fourth at Memorial, I had the missed cut but then third in France and now (top-5) here. So it’s not that much wrong. “
McIlroy - who has had eight top-10s in his last 10 appearances in Majors, dating back to his PGA win at Valhalla in 2014 - added: “It’s really close. I’m staying positive about it. I feel like good things are happening and if I can drive the ball like I did this week at Baltusrol, and sharpen up a few bits and pieces, I think I’ll be right there (in the PGA).”
