Rory McIlroy

Cameron Smith produced a sensational final-round 64 at St Andrews to overtake the overnight leader Rory McIlroy and claim the Open Championship.

With Greg Norman fronting the Saudi Arabian-backed operation, which McIlroy sits in such stark opposition to, there is a joke somewhere about Australians causing grief to the Northern Irishman. Now just may not be the time to tell it. With McIlroy and Viktor Hovland in the final group, it was the Norwegian who blinked first. It’s the way it is.” “If you lose by eight you don’t really care.” The 25-year-old’s curious major year has seen two missed cuts, a tied third and a second. Smith, who won the Players Championship in May, is enjoying the time of his life. The lead was now shared. McIlroy needed to make short work of the par five 14th but could not after failing to reach the green in two. He played with a day-four fearlessness that renders him the worthy champion of such a landmark event. Smith’s 19 under played McIlroy’s 18 under as the former birdied the 14th. Smith’s 20 under par saw off Young by one and a rueful but magnanimous McIlroy by two. The crowd offered an impromptu roar in vain hope of sporting fairytale. It is difficult to state McIlroy did much wrong during round four, save perhaps not capitalise appropriately on opportunity.

Even someone watching golf for the first time in their life on Sunday could have summed up why Rory McIlroy didn't win the 150th British Open.

In fact, McIlroy's final two-putt par on 18 left him in solo third behind Cameron Young, who eagled the hole moments before. And not literally, because, he obviously converted a lot of tap-ins—18 of them, in fact. Maybe during another year, but not one with a record-tying score of 20 under.

Cameron Smith stuns St Andrews by snatching the 150th Open by one stroke from Cameron Young, as overnight leader Rory McIlroy finishes third.

"It's unreal to look at the names on this trophy and then see mine. The Claret Jug is Smith's because he had a magnificent day. "I didn't feel like I did many things wrong, but the putter went cold on me throughout the round," said the 33-year-old, who had 36 putts in his 70 shots.

Rory McIlroy was left to rue another missed opportunity to end his long major drought after squandering a two-shot advantage during his final round at The ...

"I want to finish the season off well. I want to finish the season off right. Again, it's one of the best seasons I've had in a long time. "I've got a bit of time to rest and recover and try to take the positives, learn from the negatives, and move on," McIlroy added. "I'll rue a few missed sort of putts that slid by, but it's been a good week overall," McIlroy added. "It's just one of those days where I played a really controlled round of golf.

Cameron Smith stole the claret jug from Rory McIlroy's grasp, carding six birdies Sunday at St. Andrews and capping a 64-64 weekend to win the 150th Open ...

"I was expecting I was going to hang in there for a little bit longer. Yeah, just really proud of how I kind of knuckled down today and managed to get it done." What it means: Coming into this 150th Open, McIlroy spoke of the significance of winning a claret jug at St. Andrews’ prized Old Course. He called the achievement the “holy grail” of professional golf, so though McIlroy already possessed one Open title, in 2014 at Royal Liverpool, he wanted this one badly. Smith added a birdie at the last with a closing 8-under 64, but he actually won this championship a hole earlier, at the par-4 Road Hole, where he piped a drive down the fairway only to smother one left and well short of the green. If I had made the birdies there from good positions, it probably would have been a different story." Yeah, managed to get away with a 4 there." "I kind of had to draw a 9-iron in there. It's one that I feel like I let slip away, but there will be other opportunities." Yeah, just stuck to what I was doing. No bunkers, no three-putts, take care of the drivable par 4s and take care of the par 5s. "It's just one of those days where I played a really controlled round of golf. And for good measure, he didn’t miss a green in regulation.

The four-time major winner, eight years into trying for the fifth, hit every green in the final round at St. Andrews. It just turned out that Cameron Smith ...

As he said, “It's one of the best seasons I've had in a long time.” As Hovland said: “He's come awfully close and played really well this year. The crowd showered McIlroy with affection all week – not just because of his previous achievements or how he played, but because of the stands he has taken. He had to make a 33-yard chip through the Valley of Sin to force a playoff. This week, McIlroy came as close as a player could to winning a major without actually winning the major. McIlroy had a terrific year at the majors: second at the Masters, eighth at the PGA, tied for fifth at the U.S. Open, and third here. He was patient and poised – and ultimately, he was just a victim of Cam Smith’s excellence, like everybody else. If he had needed birdie on 18, he probably would have made one and shot a final-round 69. He needed to make a putt or two, and he needed Smith to not shoot a closing 64 like he did. If he had made one mid-range putt earlier in the round, he probably would have forced a playoff. That was part of a pattern: He has often shown up, played himself out of contention early, and then played freely with the pressure off and made a backdoor top 10. He took the lead Saturday night, and he said, “my hotel room is directly opposite the big yellow board on 18 there, right of the 1st. If he made a significant mistake, it was tactical: “There's a lot of putts today where I couldn't just trust myself to start it inside the hole.

Cameron Smith got hot, Rory McIlroy's putter got cold and St. Andrews played easy. A look at what mattered most at the 150th playing of The Open.

Smith, 28, is the sixth straight winner of a major by a player who is in his 20s. The ball was kind of staying on the ground. For much of the week, with so much attention on McIlroy and Woods, you might have barely noticed that PGA Tour rookie Cameron Young was in contention. Morikawa won the 2020 PGA Championship at Harding Park and the 2021 Open at Royal St. George's. "But at the end of the day, he keeps playing the way he's doing, he's going to get one pretty soon, I think at least. It was the ninth time he has finished in the top five at a major since last winning one. McIlroy finished in the top 10 in each of the four majors this season. Smith seemed to arrive at the Players in March, when he won $3.6 million, the richest purse for a winner in PGA Tour history. Playing one group behind Smith, McIlroy made a birdie on the par-4 10th to move to 18-under. From 75 feet away, he putted to 2 feet and made his eighth birdie of the round. Then on the par-5 14th, Smith nearly made an 87-foot eagle putt and tapped in for birdie and a 1-shot lead. PGA Tour rookie Cameron Young eagled the 18th hole to finish solo second, 1 shot behind Smith. McIlroy, who was trying to win his fifth major, finished a disappointing third at 18-under.

The 28-year-old Queenslander became the first Australian man to claim one of golf's four majors. Read more at straitstimes.com.

“I don’t know, mate. “It’s pretty cool to be on there. One more birdie at the 18th and all that was left for Smith to do was to wait and see if McIlroy, playing the pair behind him, could eagle the last to force a playoff. “It really hasn’t sunk in yet. The world number two had preached patience the entire week and was doing just that as he reached the turn without a bogey, a single birdie good enough to keep him two shots ahead of a trio of challengers – Hovland, Smith and Young. It was another cruel near miss for McIlroy who now has top-10 finishes in all four of this season’s majors, adding a third place at St Andrews to a runner-up result at the Masters and a fifth-placed finish at the U.S. Open.

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland – Rory McIlroy let himself dream. He couldn't help it.

“I was always starting it on the edge or just outside thinking it was going to move. While Smith was in the midst of his birdie streak, McIlroy couldn’t capitalize on two of St. Andrews’ drivable par-4s, Nos. 9 and 12, and parred the par-5 14th when a birdie would have pulled him even with Smith. McIlroy missed long birdie putts on 15 and 16, as well, and a 20-footer on the difficult 17th after Smith had two-putted from behind the Road Bunker. Smith’s birdie on the final hole meant McIlroy needed to make eagle on 18. A round on the historic grounds elicits a variety of emotions. This the first time in his career that McIlroy has finished in the top 10 in all four majors. He drove it well and didn’t make a bogey, but also couldn’t hit his approach shots close enough or take advantage of the Old Course’s drivable par-4s. He spoke this week about the trust he has in his game, and the freedom it has produced. “I just couldn't find the shots or the putts to do that.” His 70 left him in third place, two strokes behind winner Cameron Smith. Smith birdied the first five holes of the back nine and closed with 30 en route to a Sunday 64. A win would have tied Ballesteros with five major triumphs and leave him one short of Faldo’s record for most majors by a European player since World War I. McIlroy is the player in today’s game who gives the most consideration to context. His legacy is his priority at this point in his career, and only a victory at Augusta National would do more for it. But each time he peered out his hotel-room window, he allowed himself to imagine what could have been the most important victory of his career. The enormous yellow scoreboard that stood stories above St. Andrews’ final hole stared back at him whenever he looked out the window of his hotel room.

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It’s just a matter of staying patient.” So at 2:50 p.m. local time on Sunday, when he and Viktor Hovland started Game No. 42 of the day, the working assumption for plenty of people around St. Andrews was that one of them would hoist the freshly engraved claret jug. McIlroy, who missed the 2015 tournament at St. Andrews because of an injury, had fared well on the Old Course in the past, placing third in the 2010 Open. He could gather only so much, though, about the swelling threat in the pairing just ahead, where Young, playing alongside Smith, was also on the march, gaining seven shots toward his eventual runner-up finish. His drought notwithstanding, there may be no player in professional golf these days thought to have so much unrealized promise. It was impossible, of course, for Hovland’s troubles, which accumulated to a 74 for Sunday, to escape McIlroy’s notice. “I was just doing my own thing,” McIlroy said. If I had made the birdies there from good positions, it probably would have been a different story.” On Sunday, he recorded birdies only twice, his putter not the weapon it was a day earlier. I just couldn’t find the shots or the putts to do that.” It was not that McIlroy, who finished eighth or better at all four majors in 2022, played a round rife with disaster — his Sunday scorecard showed a two-under-par 70 and no bogeys. “I felt like I didn’t do much wrong today, but I didn’t do much right either,” McIlroy said after he finished third in the Open, behind Smith and Cameron Young. “It’s just one of those days where I played a really controlled round of golf.

Rory McIlroy said he envisioned what it would feel like to win an Open Championship at the Old Course. This isn't the ending he expected.

After making seven straight pars, he chipped it into the slope on 18 and it released well past the hole. After Smith birdied the short 18th — which was no surprise — McIlroy needed an eagle to force a playoff. Smith elected to putt around the bunker and left himself 10 feet to save par and keep his lead, and he drained it. McIlroy was tied with Hovland through 54 holes, and it was fitting that he was in the pole position. McIlroy was one under on the front and made the turn leading by three, but Smith, playing in the pairing ahead, opened his back nine with birdies on 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14, with the fifth of those giving him the outright lead. Fans without tickets crammed against the fence on The Links, hoping to get close enough to get a peek of the scene. The fans who weren’t following him were waiting to see him down the stretch, standing in long lines to get into the 1st hole grandstands to secure a view of the 18th green. Two days earlier, McIlroy had shared a fairway with and tipped his cap to Woods, who was perhaps playing in his final Open at St. Andrews, and it seemed as if the stage was now his. He hasn’t won a major for nearly eight years; he’s tried lots of things to deal with the nerves, the thoughts, the overanalyzing. One of the top hotels in town, it overlooks the 18th hole at the Old Course. There’s a balcony out back, and earlier this week McIlroy pointed out where his family was staying to Tiger Woods. They waved to Poppy, McIlroy’s 1-year-old daughter. He entered the day tied with Viktor Hovland and four clear of anyone else. From his room at the Rusacks, McIlroy said he had a view of the Open Championship leaderboard on the far side of the 1st fairway.

After a third-place finish at the British Open, McIlroy is still stuck searching for that elusive fifth major championship.

All of that is clearly of little solace to McIlroy. It said Sunday night — and it will say for eternity — that Smith won the 150th Open because his putter was otherworldly and McIlroy’s was ordinary. Tiger Woods went 11 years between majors 14 and 15 — but he was 43 for the most recent. Writing about McIlroy so often involves writing about the state of his sport, so a note to those players who have departed for the Saudi-backed LIV Golf: How will you stay sharp between now and the next major, which is the Masters eight months hence? For the LIV Golf guys — whose highest finishers at the Open were Dustin Johnson, who tied for sixth and was never a threat Sunday, and Bryson DeChambeau, whose final-round 66 lifted him to a tie for eighth — there’s … what, exactly? But he was all but a different person back then, and his next major was the ultimate bounce-back — a romp in the U.S. Open at Congressional, the week that has provided all the promise every time he tees it up. Here’s the reality, so troubling, so static: In the summer of 2014, McIlroy was a carefree 25-year-old raking in the British Open and the PGA Championship to run his total to four majors — and counting. So many of those who departed from the PGA Tour to take the grubby Saudi money offered the feeble and false reasoning that LIV Golf would allow for more freedom in their scheduling. For a player who is often defined either by a strut that would make a peacock seem bashful or a slump that would make Eeyore seem buoyant, for so much of the weekend, McIlroy was just … playing. That was true when he hit the shot that made you think, “Maybe this is finally his week,” a hole-out from a bunker on No. 10 for a third-round eagle Saturday. Yes, he pumped his fist. In the summer of 2022, he is the 33-year-old voice of his sport, a star on both sides of the Atlantic. Total majors: Four. Sure, he blew a four-shot lead in the final round of the 2011 Masters, memorably shooting an 80 on a day characterized by a trip to the cabins to the left of the 10th fairway. He played the final round of the 150th British Open without a bogey.

Rory McIlroy built a two-stroke lead with nine holes to go at St. Andrews but couldn't hold off the charge of British Open winner Cameron Smith.

At the start of the day, it was at the top, but at the start of tomorrow, it won't be." Of course, you think about it, and you envision it, and you want to envision it," he said. The end result is a failure and like Vesuvius he has to wait until April to begin the quest of pushing the ball up the mountain again. But despondent is what he looked like as he hid his face in his wife's embrace. "I'm playing some of the best golf I've played in a long time. The World No. 2 had his strut back this week and was playing chess against the fabled seaside links in a way that would have made past champions here like Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods proud.

Rory McIlroy came up short at St. Andrews on Sunday. But while Cam Smith is the Open winner, McIlroy leaves as its champ.

He clapped to the 18th grandstands, and to the grandstands on the first tee and to those lining the street. He made the turn in 34 and birdied the first five holes of the back to take the lead from McIlroy at the 15th. The upside to do so is small and the downside is great. Instead he took his hat off on the 18th and turned to the crowd. He is willing to be vulnerable and willing to bear his soul. Ahead Smith lagged his eagle try from the Valley of Sin to tap-in range for a birdie and two-shot lead. Solid of a player as Hovland is and strong of a future as he holds, this would be his first time in major contention, and the majors are notoriously unkind to the inexperienced. It wasn’t the result fans were hoping for, a reminder that happy endings are usually reserved to fiction. It was said in awe and said in reverence. It began Tuesday when McIlroy called this Open his Holy Grail. On the surface the parallel was easy to grasp and followed the edict from Bobby Jones, who stated a golfer’s career is not complete unless he has won at St Andrews, and far be it from us to debate this notion. Now, McIlroy had been in this position heading into a major Sunday before, and there’s no need to rehash that his major total of four has remained at four for some time. The result had seemed preordained and that it was decided by preference.