It was at The Players Championship in early May that I came across Rory McIlroy speaking post-round with a few reporters and injected myself into the conversation to get his thoughts on Phil Mickelson’s quest for a U.S. Open title after six runner-up finishes.
“So how you do think it shapes up for Phil to finally break through after six runner-up finishes and win an Open?” came the question.
“Phil?” he replied, looking puzzled. “He just win an Open last year.”
Backtracking, I assured him it was the U.S. Open and not the Open Championship. He caught himself, then gave the answer that became one of the lead quotes in my subsequent story, basically saying that if he couldn’t win himself, sure, it would be great to see Phil complete the career Grand Slam.
That moment came back Sunday watching McIlroy complete his wire-to-wire victory in what he and certainly all of his European contemporaries consider by far the most important Open, and what we call the British Open. Ahead by six shots at the start of the round, he had some anxious moments midway through when both Sergio Garcia and Rickie Fowler made a run at him, but perservered for a two-shot victory.
The win leaves him only a Masters championship short of a career grand slam. And he’s only 25.
It’s been a long, winding and often frustrating road back to greatness for McIlroy, who won a U.S. Open at 22 and a PGA Championship at 23 _ both by a whopping eight shots _ and then fell into a funk, not winning again until the BMW Championship this past May in England mere days after breaking up with fiancée Caroline Wozniacki.
We saw some of the ups and down that have typified the past few years of his career at PGA National at the Honda Classic, where he won in 2012, withdrew in the middle of the second round in 2013 and then had a 15-foot eagle putt to win this year but wound up losing in a playoff to Russell Henley.
A resident of Palm Beach Gardens who plays out of The Bear’s Club in Jupiter, McIlroy is one of ours. He built two houses side-by-side to have one available when his parents come to visit, which is often. As loyal as he is to his Northern Ireland roots, he’s made it equally clear he’s come to enjoy the Florida lifestyle, the year-round warm weather and the ready availability of so many fellow pros with whom he can tee it up at a moment’s notice.
We can’t say we’ve gotten to know McIlroy, but we have come to admire the way he accepted his struggles when he was battling inconsistency and how he always kept both a smile on his face and the determination that he’d find his way past them and back into the winner’s circle.
And it was also great on Sunday to see how Garcia and Fowler kept battling until the end, never giving McIlroy a sense that he had the Claret Jug in his grasp until his final bunker shot on the 72nd hole set him up for an easy two-putt par.
Both runners-up have shown this year they are determined competitors in majors, with Fowler now putting up back-to-back T-2 showings in majors. Yes, he still only has one career win, but putting on emphasis on performing well at big events is clearly paying dividends.
The PGA Championship is less than three weeks away and the storylines of the year’s last major will be abundant: Can Rory get two in a row? Will Martin Kaymer rebound and wrap up Player of the Year honors with a second major? Will Fowler or Garcia battle their way to a victory? Can Tiger Woods, still apparently rusty from his lengthy layoff due to back surgery, rediscover the magic in time to end his major drought after six years? Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, where Woods outlasted journeyman Bob May to win in a playoff back in 2000, will be the venue when the PGA is contested Aug. 6-10.
