It might have been the best losing 65 in Open history, a piece of Rory McIlroy theatre in front of his own people that nobody will forget. He will not be allowed to forget it either, whatever the heroism he showed in stretching improbability to the outer limits.
The yawning gap between elite athletes and those who stand in awe is built on two priceless gifts: vision and precision. When McIlroy stepped up to hit his final shot to the 18th green, he could see the dangers like the rest of us, a hellish sloping roll into light grass off the edge of the putting surface. So he aimed slightly right of the left-placed flag, in the belief that the ball would sit down close enough to be knocked in for a birdie. It did not. It slipped into hell and that is where McIlroy was left to wonder. Par was useless and, by a single stroke, he was out of the 148th Open.
So, on both counts, he was dragged back to the field. He was human again, having been divine for five hours. His finish, in a strange way, mimicked his start to the tournament, with a seemingly innocent misjudgment that resulted in an embarrassing eight on the first hole on Thursday. Take that disaster out and he makes the cut easily.
If he had carded a pair of 72s instead of 79 and 65 he would have been disappointed not to have found at least some magic to throw at this wonderful course and left town with people whispering that his game had dipped into ordinariness on the biggest stage.
But that finish, even though flawed at the end, at least saved a good chunk of his reputation – in the eyes of well-informed observers, anyway. “I think Rory is going to reboot,” Nick Faldo said. “That was some 65.”
Eddie Pepperell, still punching on Saturday, took time out from his normally rigorous preparation to tell his Twitter followers: “Fair play to Rory. Probably the most disappointing 65 you could ever shoot but, boy, he has so much class.”
On Wednesday McIlroy was a 9-1 favourite to win and make history by winning his home Open on the event’s return to Portrush after an absence of 68 years. On Friday evening he was history.
Yet such was the fervour for a home winner that one in 10 bets tracked by Oddschecker went on the Irishman. Expectations could not have been higher and McIlroy felt the pressure. He spoke beforehand of trying to reclaim the freedom and innocence that inspired him to break the course record here when he was 16. He wanted no more than to smile again and make others smile with him.
Whatever the cynicism that attaches to any celebrity or athlete who reaches the top, his freckled, wide-eyed joy at trying to deliver the gift and satisfaction of victory to his compatriots was palpable when he teed off on Friday. What followed was a wild, gripping tale that rode the wind like a seagull over Giant’s Causeway.
Before he headed for home, trying still to be cheery about his fall, he put it succinctly: “I’m unbelievably proud of how I handled myself coming back after what was a very challenging first day. And I’m just full of gratitude towards every single one of the people that followed me to the very end and was willing me on.”
Nearly everyone was. A few were not. And that is sad.
For some reason McIlroy is resented here and there for his greatness, and his perfectly understandable move away from Europe to the PGA, where he is tested repeatedly in the sport’s toughest environment. The prizes are bigger there, too, and that always stokes envy.
Yet he spent £1m on a gym at the Holywood golf club where his journey began and was there earlier in the week, not to work out but to sit quietly and have a cup of tea with his dad.
The Irish comedian Dara Ó Briain, once of this parish, tells the story of spotting a young McIlroy queueing to see one of his gigs in Belfast many years ago. When he offered to slip him into the theatre with a free ticket, he declined. It would not be right, he told Ó Briain.
If he also angered some with his reluctance to declare for Ireland at the Rio Olympics, he surely healed a wound or two by committing to don the green in Tokyo next year.
As Pepperell says, he has class – buckets of it. If desperation leads to inspiration, it still takes courage to play like he did on Friday. He went for every shot. It is a shame the last couple did not get him over the line.
“As much as I came here at the start of the week saying I wanted to do it for me, by the end of the round there I was doing it just as much for them as I was for me,” he said. “I wanted to be here for the weekend. Selfishly I wanted to feel that support for two more days.”
McIlroy deserves it for much longer than that.
