Rory McIlroy’s challenge for the U.S. Open title dissolved during a critical nine-hole stretch on Saturday at Shinnecock Hills. After moving into contention at two-under-par, a back-nine 40 dropped him out of the running, and he finished the tournament at six-over.
McIlroy was just four shots off the lead making the turn in his third round, but his performance deteriorated rapidly. He bogeyed the 10th after an errant wedge shot, followed by three-putt bogeys on the 12th and 14th holes. A missed two-foot par putt on the 15th compounded the errors, and another bogey at 18 left him nine shots behind entering the final day.
He later identified that period as the decisive moment of his week. “I think looking back on the entire week, I’ll obviously rue the back nine yesterday,” McIlroy said. “I got myself to two-under par for the tournament after nine yesterday, and then the wheels came off and played a really bad back nine. I sort of shot myself out of the tournament then. Obviously, I was really disappointed coming away from the course last night.”
Any slim hopes of a final-round charge were extinguished early on Sunday with bogeys at the second and third holes. McIlroy acknowledged the difficulty in recovering from the previous day’s performance. “You try to come out here today positive and you try to muster up the energy to put a good one in there But a couple of bogeys on the front nine, I was just trying to race my way to the 18th green,” he stated.
In a frustrating turn, McIlroy birdied the 10th and 11th holes on Sunday, a sequence that would have placed him firmly in the title chase had it occurred 24 hours earlier. “I could have done with that start to the back nine yesterday for sure,” he reflected. The strong run of U.S. Open results from 2019 to 2025 ultimately did not translate into a victory, with McIlroy conceding that the difficult course setup proved too much. He said: “I think it won the battle over me at this point,”
