The sly punches keep coming Rory McIlroy’s way. From left field. Time, and time again. This one hurt. For much of the final round of the Amgen Irish Open over the hallowed links terrain of Royal County Down, the man from Co Down seemed destined to claim a cherished title only for a late stumble – a three-putt bogey on the 17th – and some wizardry from Denmark’s Rasmus Højgaard to tear up the script.
McIlroy has taken hard knocks in this season of golf which has seen him take more than his fair share of hits. The US Open at Pinehurst, for one. The Olympics in Paris, for another. At this stage, the Northern Irishman probably goes to sleep with the lyrics of Chumbawanba swimming around in his head. “I get knocked down, but I get up again …”
But the knocks don’t get any easier to take.
On a beautiful autumnal sunny day, with the sand hills crowded with his worshippers and the large galleries on occasions breaking through the marshalling ropes and cordons to invade the links itself, McIlroy’s final round 69 for a total of eight-under-par 276 proved one shot too many, as Højgaard’s brilliant 65 – which included two chip-in birdies – saw the Danish twin claim a fifth career win on the DP World Tour.
“Unfortunately I’m getting used to it this year. Hopefully the tide is going to turn pretty soon, and I can turn all these close calls into victories,” said a disappointed McIlroy after his latest near-miss in a season that has yielded three wins – in Dubai, New Orleans and Charlotte – but not the ones he really, really wanted. This was one of those. Hard to take, hard to absorb in the moments after it slipped from his grasp.
McIlroy had bogeyed the 15th to open the door and then his three-putt bogey on the 17th meant he fell two strokes behind Hojgaard as he stood on the 18th tee, where he took the bold decision to use driver, bringing the three fairway bunkers into play, and he hit a wonderful tee-shot followed by a 7-iron from 191 yards to 10 feet to set up an eagle putt that would have forced sudden death.
But, in this year of years, that eagle putt slid by the hole and McIlroy could only bend over in disbelief at the hand that fate had dealt him. Again.
“I’m obviously really disappointed that I didn’t win but I’ll try to take the positives and move on next week to Wentworth (for the BMW PGA Championship) … The support I got out there this week was absolutely amazing. I’ve had a great time being home. It’s been too long. I need to keep coming back more often. But, look, from where I was at the start of the week and what I wanted to do, it’s a step in the right direction. You know, if anything, it just whets my appetite even more for Portrush next year,” said McIlroy, referring to the return of The Open to the Causeway Coast.
“I’m very lucky. I get so much support when I come back. I certainly don’t take it for granted. I sort of had to try to keep my composure walking up to the 18th green there. But I did that as best as I could, but yeah, wish I could play in front of those fans and this atmosphere every week; it isn’t quite like that. Yeah, personally appreciate all the support and I can’t wait to come back,” added McIlroy.
To his credit, McIlroy went out of his way to offer congratulations to his conqueror, embracing Højgaard and offering some quiet words in the Dane’s ear.
Højgaard – two groups ahead of McIlroy – remained in the recorder’s to watch on television as the drama unfolded and, with McIlroy’s missed eagle putt, put his head in his hands as the emotion got to him. His fifth career victory, at the age of 23, came with a €920,000 pay-day that lifted him to second behind McIlroy in the Race to Dubai order of merit and guaranteed him a PGA Tour card for 2025, where he will join his brother Nicolai.
“It was a hard watch in the end but again, I had a number today that I was trying to reach, and that was eight. Obviously coming in and finishing on nine was gold. I’m so happy. The game’s been trending for a while now, and you know, to get this one is massive,” said Hojgaard, who became the fourth Danish winner of the Irish Open following Søren Kjeldsen (also at Royal County Down in 2015), Thomas Bjørn (2006) and Soren Hansen (2002).