US Open 2023: Wyndham Clark holds off Rory McIlroy to claim first major title in Los Angeles19th June 2023
| -10 W Clark (US); -9 R McIlroy (NI); -7 S Scheffler (US); -6 C Smith (Aus); -5 T Fleetwood (Eng), R Fowler (US), M W Lee (Aus) |
| Selected: -3 J Rahm (Spa), X Schauffele (US), D Johnson (US); -2 C Morikawa (US); -1 M Fitzpatrick (Eng), B Koepka (US); Level V Hovland (Nor); +1 J Smith (Eng), S Lowry (Ire), B DeChambeau (US); +2 S Garcia (Spa), T Hatton (Eng), P Harrington (Ire)
Rory McIlroy’s nine-year wait for a fifth major win goes on after he was beaten by one shot by American Wyndham Clark at the US Open in Los Angeles. Clark, 29, carded a level-par 70 to claim his first major on 10 under and the $3.6m (£2.8m) winner’s cheque. “US Opens are tough. I felt at ease though and kept saying to myself, ‘I can do this, I can do this’,” he said. McIlroy looked shattered after another close call in a major but said: “I’m right there, it’s such fine margins.” Underdog Clark’s triumph, a fine storyline in Hollywood, means it is now 3,234 days since McIlroy’s last major triumph, at the US PGA Championship at Valhalla in 2014. And whether at Southern Hills, Torrey Pines, the Augusta National, St Andrews or now on Los Angeles Country Club’s ultra-exclusive north course, a theme has continued of the Northern Irishman just falling short – he now has 19 top-10 finishes in majors, including in each of the past five US Opens. After posting a 70 to finish on nine under, he said on Sky Sports: “I have just got to keep putting myself in these positions. Sooner or later it’s going to happen for me.” The world number three, who has essentially won everything else there is to win in golf, is sure to place this week high on his list of missed opportunities. However, like in his final reckoning of the 150th Open Championship last summer it was tough to find too much fault with a performance in a final round that yielded one birdie, one bogey and 16 pars. His only possible regret will be that he was unable to exert enough pressure on Clark on a day when he found more greens in regulation than any other player. An opening birdie set the right tone but thereafter it proved a difficult day for McIlroy with putter in hand on the treacherously quick and dried out surfaces. A missed birdie putt from four feet on the par-five eighth proved pivotal as did a messy bogey at the par-five 14th despite being given a free drop after plugging his approach into the muddy bank of a greenside bunker. “There are a couple of things I will rue,” he added. “The chip on 14 being one. “It was really hard to get the ball close [to the holes] but I hung in there and just didn’t quite get the job done. “I will keep coming back until I get another one.” |