McIlroy's major drought reaches 9 years after another close call
It's become virtually impossible to flip on the television during a major championship and not see Rory McIlroy's name on the first page of the leaderboard.
Unfortunately for the 34-year-old, it's now been nine full seasons since his name was at the top.
McIlroy's final-round 68 at Royal Liverpool ensured his seventh top-eight finish in a major in his last eight starts, but it also meant he remains winless in golf's biggest events since the 2014 PGA Championship. He addressed that to the media after the round in England on Sunday.
"Over the last two years, would I have loved to have picked one of those off that I finished up there? Absolutely," McIlroy admitted. "But every time I tee it up or most times I tee it up, I'm right there. I can't sit here and be too frustrated. My game is in a - you think about my performances in the majors between, like, 2016 and 2019, it's a lot better than that. Again, I'm optimistic about my future and just got to keep plugging away."
Given how well Brian Harman played in his victory this week, it's tough to imagine anybody could've changed the outcome. However, an ice-cold putter on Saturday kept McIlroy from narrowing the gap to less than nine shots and playing his way into one of the final groups.
McIlroy started his third round with three birdies in his first six holes, but he missed four birdie putts of 13 feet or less the rest of the way. The result was a 2-under 69 that could have easily been a few shots lower.
He putted better on Sunday as he made a run up the leaderboard, but difficult conditions made it tricky to make up the necessary ground to put a scare into Harman.
"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 in those conditions," McIlroy said. "Overall solid performance, not spectacular, but a lot of optimism going into the rest of the year."
McIlroy will now turn his attention to the upcoming FedEx Cup Playoffs, where he will enter as the defending champion and three-time winner.