Rory McIlroy revealed he has a lot of regrets following another major championship near-miss at last week’s PGA Championship at Southern Hills where he finished eighth despite holding the first-round lead.
McIlroy rose to the top of the leaderboard with an opening 65 and looked on course to end his eight-year major championship drought but feels his performances on Friday and Saturday were damaging.
The four-time major winner had the better side of the draw in Tulsa but followed up a superb 65 with a battling round of 71 on Friday and a calamitous 74 on Saturday that included a double and triple-bogey on the par-3s.
Speaking to Irish Golfer at the launch of the new GolfNow Complete App that offers a Unique, competitive approach to making a round of golf with friends more fun, McIlroy feels those two rounds ultimately proved costly but was also disappointed with how his early Sunday charge fizzled out on the back nine, leaving him three shots outside the playoff on two-under having climbed to four-under after four successive birdies on the front nine.
“I regret I didn’t take advantage of the benign conditions on Friday afternoon,” said McIlroy. “I regret the big numbers I made on the par-3s on Saturday, the fact I just needed to play the last twelve holes in one-under-par to make the playoff on Sunday and I didn’t, so yeah, I definitely feel like it was one that got away.”
The Holywood native has had a promising start to the major championship season despite his performances not yielding a fifth title. A career-best runner-up finish at the Masters last month signalled a potential turning point for McIlroy and despite a missed opportunity last week he feels his game is heading in the right direction and is excited for the rest of the season.
“I have to take the positives and the fact that eighth place at a major is the worst place I could have finished last week and that’s a completely different story from where I was the last couple of years,” reflected McIlroy. “The first two majors of last year I missed the cut at Augusta, I finished 50th at the PGA, this year is a different story, a lot more positive, my golf game is in a much better place and I think at this point I need to stay as patient as possible.”
“I know if I keep playing the golf that I’m playing, chances are going to present themselves and I am going to give myself a few more chances this year to win majors and win golf tournaments in general. That’s the exciting thing.”
“Last week for sure was disappointing but I still have a lot to look forward to this year.”
McIlroy isn’t teeing it up in the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club but will be back in action next week at Jack’s place for the Memorial at Muirfield Village before heading to Toronto to defend his RBC Canadian Open title.
His next jaunt at a fifth major title will come in three weeks’ time when he tees it up at the US Open in Brookline.
With a shared vision between McIlroy and NBC Sports Next, GolfNow Compete was developed to be an all-in-one app that makes any round of golf more fun and social with exclusive features and games that keep everyone engaged, while also helping golfers elevate their games with tools that help them play, navigate the course, keep stats and scores. Search the app store to download the new app or visit https://compete.golfnow.com/
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