Clockwise from top left: Charley Hull, Nelly Korda, Rory McIlroy, Rose Zhang, Stacy Lewis and Jon Rahm. Getty Images Welcome to the Monday Finish, where we’re still waiting for golf’s “offseason” to hit. Maybe next week? To the news.
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And it would make me happy. GOLF STUFF I LIKE The loneliness of the arena. As Rory McIlroy walked up the 18th fairway at Royal County Down on Sunday afternoon, thousands lined the hole, Irish lads and lasses, shouting encouragement, filling in the fairway behind him, hoping to lift him to a miracle finish.
McIlroy had just suffered tremendous misfortune when his chief competition, Rasmus Højgaard , had holed a bunker shot at No. 17 for an incredibly unlikely birdie. McIlroy then brought further pain on himself, three-putting from 25 feet at No.
17 just minutes later. His two-shot lead from an hour before was suddenly gone, now transformed to a two-shot deficit with one hole to play. The round wasn’t yet over but already you could feel echoes of McIlroy’s high-profile near-misses gone by.
His three-putt at 17 echoed his three-putt at No. 16 at the U.S.
Open earlier this summer. The throngs of Northern Irish fans urging him along echoed the cries of those who’d tried to carry him in vain to a missed cut at Royal Portrush a half-decade ago. McIlroy’s only remaining hope was to eagle the par-5 18th to force a playoff, a.