US Open 2024: Rory McIlroy aims to convert last major opportunity after string of near wins

PINEHURST, N.C. — Rory McIlroy hasn't won a major championship in a decade. It has been a long slog with many successes, including two second places in the last two years alone. On Sunday, McIlroy will enter his final round at the 2024 US Open with a chance to finally break through if he can convert a victory opportunity into a victory to lift a trophy.

McIlroy has finished in the top 10 20 times since his last major victory, the 2014 PGA Championship at Valhalla. And while some of those finishes came amid ultra-low Sunday rounds leading to backdoor finishes in the leaderboard, it was Rory's proximity to the winner's circle in recent years that made his drought particularly frustrating major.

Five of McIlroy's last 10 major starts have resulted in a finish of T6 or better, including a second-place finish at last year's U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club. This most accurately reflects the situation McIlroy will face on Sunday at Pinehurst No. 2. He'll be in the penultimate group like he was last year, and he'll be paired with another of the game's top talents, Patrick Cantlay, after playing alongside Scottie Scheffler in 2023.

The objective will be the same: track down the leader with an outstanding score to put pressure on the final group heading towards the clubhouse. McIlroy was unable to accomplish that last year, making a birdie on the first hole and a bogey on the 14th for an even final round of 70 before falling by one shot to eventual winner Wyndham Clark.

“The pros and cons of being in the last group, and maybe playing a group in front is not necessarily a bad thing,” McIlroy said after his 1-under 69 on Saturday. “I'm in pretty much the same position as I was last year going into the final day of the LACC. So, familiar position, I've been here many times before, and hopefully tomorrow I'll produce the golf needed to do better .”

While the 2011 US Open marked McIlroy's first major victory – touring the field at the age of 22 at Congressional Country Club – this particular major was not an event that suited his game for much part of his career. McIlroy missed the cut five times in nine US Open starts from 2010 to 2018, and he expressed this week the feeling that he did not have the right approach to attack the unique challenge presented by the USGA for his national championship.

A change in mindset – one that embraces the challenge and is willing to take a more conservative approach if necessary – has led to very different results. McIlroy has finished in the top 10 in each of his last five US Open appearances, and he credits his change in approach.

“I really don't think I've adopted the US Open setups probably 10 years into my US Open career,” he admitted earlier in the week. “I played my first one in 2009, and I think I really changed my mindset towards them in 2019, that one at Pebble, and since then, I've – I also started to enjoy this style of golf a lot more. It's very different from the golf we play week in and week out.”

This style of golf? It's about being humble about the course, playing conservatively at times, but aggressively when you get the chance. And most importantly, it's about knowing how to deal with adversity when you suffer a setback, trying to get to the middle of the green, giving yourself a chance on every hole, but “taking your medicine if you get in trouble.” “.

Even in his efforts so far here at Pinehurst, there is a lesson to be learned and areas for improvement from his fence. Two late bogeys (at Nos. 15 and 17) kept McIlroy out of the final pairing with Bryson DeChambeau and kept him from being one shot out of the lead rather than maintaining the three-shot deficit to which he faces Sunday.

Overturning the results of those close calls and ending a decade-long major drought will come down to better finishing, finding the shots needed when the championship is on the line Sunday night. If McIlroy can summon this excellence under pressure, he will place the final piece of the puzzle that has been his inability to capture the elusive fifth major.