Rory McIlroy enters the final round of the US Open with another chance at ending a nine-year wait for a major.
Entering Sunday's play, McIlroy, 34, is third in the leaderboard, one shot back of American joint-leaders Rickie Fowler and Wyndham Clark. A dozen years after winning his first major title Stateside at the 111th US Open, the former world number one has his latest opportunity to end an almost decade-long drought in Los Angeles.
Not since the PGA Championship has the four-time major winner lifted one of the sport's premier prizes. On that occasion, the sight of McIlroy holding a major aloft came less than a month after claiming the Open at the Royal Liverpool Golf Club.
Despite doubling his major haul in the summer of 2014, number five has remained elusive for the Northern Irishman. He's had 18 top ten finishes in majors since 2014. Mirror Sport has looked back at some of his most agonising near-misses in recent years in the build-up to Sunday's finale.
2022 Open
Despite McIlroy entering the final round tied for the lead with Norway's Viktor Hovland and four clear of the chasing pack, posting two-under 70 meant a third-place finish at St Andrews. Camerons Smith and Young leapfrogged the former world number one on Sunday.
Last year was the fourth time McIlroy has finished in the top five at the Open since winning in 2014. The Northern Irishman has previously tied for fifth, fourth and second in consecutive years between 2016 and 2018, respectively. He will hope the Open returning to Merseyside in July proves to be a good omen.
2021 US Open
A four-under 67 third-round at Torrey Pines left McIlroy well-positioned in a tie for fourth ahead of the final day of play and just two shots back of joint-leaders Russell Henley, Mackenzie Hughes and Louis Oosthuizen. That form continued into Sunday, too, as the Northern Irishman got into a share of the lead on the front-nine.
However, a double-bogey on the 12th after finding the greenside bunker derailed any hopes of getting his hands on some silverware. McIlroy tied for seventh at one-under and five shots back of champion Jon Rahm. He has now finished in the top ten at each of the last four US Opens and will hope a win extends that run to five.
2018 Masters
McIlroy came close to winning an elusive green jacket and completing a Grand Slam of majors in August 2018. Teeing off three shots behind leader Patrick Reed, those hopes ended after he shot a 74, which was only good enough for a tie for fifth.
2020 also saw McIlroy finish joint-fifth at the Masters before coming from behind to finish a distant runner-up two years later in 2022. Fourth is his career-best finish, achieved in 2015, and he could have completed a hat-trick of triumphs, having claimed the Open and PGA Championship the previous year.
