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Rory McIlroy insists he would rather have agonising close calls than no chance to win after quickly turning his US Open heartbreak into major motivation.
McIlroy briefly held a two-shot lead at Pinehurst with five holes to play but bogeyed three of the last four, missing very short putts on the 16th and 18th to finish a shot behind Bryson DeChambeau.
It was the 35-year-old’s best chance to win his first major since 2014 and brought back painful memories of squandering a four-shot lead in the final round of the 2011 Masters with a closing 80.
On that occasion McIlroy bounced back to win the US Open two months later and the Northern Irishman can respond even quicker 14 years on, with the 152nd Open getting under way at Royal Troon just 32 days after his hasty exit from Pinehurst.
“I know that I’m in a good spot,” McIlroy, who revealed he had missed a supportive text from Tiger Woods due to changing his phone number after the US Open, said.
“If I think about 2015 through 2020, I seldom had a realistic chance to win a major championship in that five-year period. So I’d much rather have these close calls. It means that I’m getting closer.
“I’d love to be able to get one over the line, but as soon as I do that, people are going to say, well, when are you going to win your sixth? So it’s never ending.”
After three weeks off McIlroy returned to action with a tie for fourth in last week’s Scottish Open, where he revealed he spent several days alone with his thoughts in New York to process the events of Pinehurst.
“I would say maybe like three or four days after, I went from being very disappointed and dejected to trying to focus on the positives to then wanting to learn from the negatives and then getting to the point where you become enthusiastic and motivated to go again,” the world number two said.
“It’s funny how your mindset can go from ‘I don’t want to see a golf course for a month’ to like four days later being ‘can’t wait to get another shot at it’.
“When that disappointment turns to motivation, that’s when it’s time to go again.”
As for the missed text message from Woods, McIlroy jokingly laid the blame at the door of the 15-time major winner for waiting for a week after the US Open to send his support.
“Full disclosure, I changed my number two days after the US Open so I didn’t get it until he told me about it today,” McIlroy said with a smile.
“I was like, ‘oh, thanks very much’. So I blanked Tiger Woods, which is probably not a good thing.
“Tiger has been nothing but incredible to me over the course of my career in the good moments and the bad. He sent me an incredible message after St Andrews in 2022.
“I met Tiger when I was 15 years old, and I’ve built up a great relationship with him, his whole family. He really enjoys spending time with my mom and dad as well.
“So it means a lot that he reached out. Actually it means a lot that he waited a few days to reach out, because if he hadn’t have waited that long I probably would have got it.
“But I caught up with him earlier. It’s always nice when your hero and the guy that you had on your bedroom wall is reaching out and offering words of encouragement.
“From the time I left Pinehurst to the time I walked through my front door on Sunday night, I probably got about 10 or 15 text messages from media members, and I was like, it’s probably time to get a new number.
“Create a bit of space.”
