LOS ANGELES – In both major championship golf and Los Angeles traffic, the waiting is what wears you out.
Rory McIlroy’s and Rickie Foller’s symbiotic partnership dates back to 2007, when both were 18 years old, with long hair and much potential. One has delivered more on this promise than the other.
Fowler won his first PGA Tour title in a play-off over McIlroy on the same course that McIlroy had claimed two years prior. McIlroy won his last major, the PGA Championship in ’14, after a twilight nail biter against Fowler. He won his first major title, the ’11 U.S. Open, less than four years after turning professional. This meant that he never became the golfer who was the best without a major. Fowler is almost five months older than Fowler and has also been mentioned on such dispatches, based on a few Tour titles including the Players Championship.
McIlroy won three majors in quick succession – two PGA Championships, and the older Open – but not since his second Wanamaker Trophy nine years earlier. He’s felt the pain of wearing that major-less tag for about half of these 3,234 days. McIlroy is known for having four majors, but he’s also the best player who hasn’t won another one. It’s worse than being a winless player.
To be called the best player and not have a major implies that your best is yet to come. The best player who is waiting for another suggests that one’s best may be behind them.
McIlroy is doing everything he can since Valhalla to dispel this notion: 14 more wins on the PGA Tour, three wins in the FedEx Cup season-long, four more wins in Europe, three best season titles in Europe, and 18 top ten finishes at majors, of which half are top fives. Most people would say that’s a career worth of wins, but he is constantly judged on what he hasn’t won recently.
Even casual observers noted a change this week in McIlroy. Not much changed on the surface. He skipped a news conference, but he was still his usual self. There was a distinct edge of impatience and the air of someone who had just about had enough of the crap that is the majors.
McIlroy’s nine-year search for a major championship is exhausting, but the fact that others have won it makes his failure even more frustrating. Brooks Koepka won five majors since McIlroy’s fourth. Jordan Spieth is third with three. Dustin Johnson has two. Collin Morikawa is another recent college graduate. Even Tiger Woods, who is a generation older than Mickelson and has spent his forces on paper in the past, won since 2014.
This week’s focus on the pointed-elbowed elbowed might have been a result of Koepka’s PGA Championship win last month, in Rochester, New York, the hometown of McIlroy and Erica. He may have been unburdened after picking out the shrapnel that he took on a Tour who treated him as a “sacrificial ram,” to use his own words. It could have been his grouping of Koepka in the first two rounds where he shaved him by eight shots.
McIlroy delivered for the most part of the The 123rd U.S. Open. He used his driver as Thor’s hammer, pounding the L.A.C.C. North course to submission. He played the U.S. Open’s final round in what was long considered ideal – a birdie early and then a series of pars. His putter was not as hot as in the final round of the Open last summer at St. Andrews, and his 14th-hole bunker break was terrible. It was going to be another devastating Sunday at a major.
Fowler, without the hardware, is McIlroy. Fowler has an impeccable personal brand and a lucrative reputation. As a father of 34, he’s outgrown neon highlighter fashions even though he still wears them. He had a share of lead going into the final round, but he spewed oil the entire day. A series of bogies left him a few shot behind.
McIlroy is still waiting for his five-hole victory in Los Angeles, while Fowler has only one hole. Fowler will take away more than McIlroy from the U.S. Open. The Northern Irishman missed a golden chance. Californian’s performance was unexpectedly good after four years of mediocrity. Small victories are comforting on days like these.
It’s about six miles to Hollywood from Los Angeles Country Club and another five and a half miles to Holywood Golf Club in Belfast, where McIlroy was raised. He has traveled a road that was once smooth and exciting, like an autobahn. It has been more like a country road in recent years with unexpected turns and potholes. Royal Liverpool is the next stop in his journey, where he won his third major nine years ago. This will serve as a reminder of what he used to be and who he is going to be in the future. Wait.
