Rory McIlroy’s missed par putt on the 72nd hole of the 2024 U.S. Open may have officially eliminated the four-time major winner from a share of the lead on Sunday.
McIlroy could have approached the closing stretch at Pinehurst No. 2 with a bit more breathing room if his tee shot on the par-3 15th hole had been better.
McIlroy, who entered the 15th hole with a one-shot lead over eventual champion Bryson DeChambeau, had his tee shot go over the green and into a position from which nobody in the field could recover all week. The same was true for McIlroy, who couldn’t get up and down and ended the hole with a bogey.
Hank Haney, Tiger Woods’ former swing instructor, claimed on Tuesday that the bogey may have been avoided with better club selection from the tee.
He also directed a veiled jab at McIlroy’s caddie, Harry Diamond.
“I will say this, if Steve Williams was Rory’s caddie I can promise you he would have never hit a perfect flighted 7 iron that rolled over the green on 15 into a terrible lie because he would have hit an 8 iron and sent it straight up in the air and held the green,” Haney wrote on social media.
I will say this, if Steve Williams was Rory’s caddie I can promise you he would have never hit a perfect flighted 7 iron that rolled over the green on 15 into a terrible lie because he would have hit an 8 iron and sent it straight up in the air and held the green.
— Hank Haney (@HankHaney) June 18, 2024
McIlroy finished the last four holes of the US Open at three over par.
He bogeyed 15, 16, and 18, after making only one bogey in his first 14 holes on Sunday.
Do you believe a new caddie may help McIlroy overcome his decade-long major slump?