The chapter closes on Rory's majorless decade as a new one begins

Rónán MacNamara in Royal Troon

Sometimes I hit a golf shot that makes me feel like Rory McIlroy. Well, at the Open Championship, Rory McIlroy hit plenty of golf shots to know how it feels to be me.

“The majors have come and gone,” said McIlroy after a missed cut at the Open Championship as he stressed the importance of the bigger picture. But the big picture is that a decade has come and gone since he last won a major title.

Rory McIlroy is an enigmatic figure and while for so long he looked on the cusp of finally winning that fifth major after near misses in 2022, 2023 and last month, he now looks to be at as low an ebb as he has ever been with his quest to end his major drought now set for an eleventh year as a new decade begins.

Eight months of wondering where does he go from here? Well, the short answer is to Paris for the Olympics next month. He’s found excuses to not participate before but I don’t think his commitment can be called into question here despite the question being asked on Friday.

McIlroy has often stressed the point that he is a much better player than he was when he won his last major at the 2014 PGA Championship in Valhalla and while that is undoubtedly the case, the scar tissue that has built up over the last decade has only been doubled by what happened at the US Open.

When McIlroy lost the US Open at Pinehurst to Bryson DeChambeau last month it was the first time in ten years that he genuinely had a major title in his grasp approaching the final hurdle only to fall.

Having come so close to the peak of the mountain he has slipped on a rock and fallen all the way back to the bottom.

Open Championships, particularly this week at Royal Troon are as much a test of a player’s mental fortitude rather than their ability to hit the ball.

For McIlroy to get over the mental disappointment of Pinehurst in time for the Troon test would have required him to channel the attitude he showed in 2011 when he bounced back from his Masters collapse to win the US Open in the next major championship.

Rory was 22 then. He’s 35 now but behind his much more intimidating physical frame is a wounded soul, that busy head of hair is now shorter with tinges of grey and he is wrinkled.

August 10 will officially bring the curtain down on McIlroy’s decade long wait but the post-mortems have already begun and the eleventh year beckons.

McIlroy began Friday’s round with the faintest of hopes of making the cut, but his chances of winning a second Open Championship died on the railway line on the 11th on Thursday.

Standing in the mixed zone, Rory answered just five questions before the press officer brought an end to proceedings before the inevitable “fifth major” question could be asked.

But the question did not need to be asked. Rory knows and we know. We know the significance of the situation and a missed 7-footer for birdie on the last summed it all up. A man who never looked ready for the battle this week, bowing out early in a damp squib.

The mental scarring from Pinehurst and a messy saga in his personal life proved too much for a jaded looking McIlroy.

Usually the pied piper when it comes to major championships, the 18th grandstands were far from full.

The mixed zone felt like Groundhog Day. McIlroy put on a brave face and refused to let his season be defined by his performances in the four biggest events on the calendar.

But his career is one that will be defined by major championship success no matter what he says, no matter if he wins the FedEx Cup, no matter if he wins the Race to Dubai, no matter if he wins an Olympic medal.

“I feel like I say this every Open Championship, but it’s not as if we only play four events a year. We play like 25, so there’s still a few things there’s left to play for. Obviously the majors have come and gone, but to sort of refocus and try to reset for the Olympics, which will be another cool experience, and try to play well there, and then again, I’m in contention to try to win both titles on either side of the Atlantic, so still some things to play for until the end of the year.”

Twenty one top-10 finishes have passed, the most of any player in any ten-year span in men’s golf history without a win. Even Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods have won major championships since Rory won his last.

McIlroy will play the bulk of the major championship season next year aged 36 and with the current talent pool at the top of the game increasing in depth and decreasing in age, is time now starting to run out on Rory?