US Open: Rory McIlroy made a mistake by leaving Pinehurst No. 2 early

Rory McIlroy made a lot of mistakes Sunday down the stretch at the US Open, where Bryson DeChambeau edged him by one.

People will continue to talk about missed putts on the 16th and 18th holes for years to come. The poor tee shot on the par-3 15th, where he made three bogeys during the week, is also a point of contention.

But his biggest mistake came after the round, immediately after DeChambeau’s improbable pair save to win the title.

McIlroy got out of the dodge and squeaked out of Pinehurst No. 2 faster than you could say goodbye. He did not speak to the media. He didn’t talk to anyone at the Golf Channel. He didn’t congratulate DeChambeau on his second big win, perhaps the most glaring mistake of all.

This is a bad and, frankly, classless move for a player who has shown nothing but class during his illustrious career. You have to face the music next, especially considering how much professional golfers are idolized and earn today, an amount that will increase exponentially considering the pending investment from the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF). Many other great athletes have endured heartbreak after heartbreak, and somehow manage to pull through and find a way to describe what happened.

Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

McIlroy even did it last year at the US Open in Los Angeles.

After finishing one shot behind Wyndham Clark, McIlroy spoke to the media and told this anecdote:

“When I finally win this next major, it will be very, very nice,” McIlroy said at LACC in 2023.

“I would spend 100 Sundays like this to get another major championship.”

Do those 100 Sundays include a day like the one McIlroy just experienced at Pinehurst No. 2? Probably not. Nothing can compare to this heartbreak, and I’m not so sure McIlroy can ever recover from what happened during the final hour of the 124th US Open.

But do you know who else suffered an agonizing defeat just a month ago in Valhalla?

DeChambeau.

What did he do?

He congratulated Xander Schauffele on his first major championship and then spoke to the media, giving his perspective on how things unfolded on the 18th green.

“I’m proud of Xander for finally getting the job done. He is an incredible golfer and now a well-deserved major champion,” DeChambeau said.

Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images

“On my side of the coin, disappointing, but whatever. I played well. I didn’t have my best performance all week. I felt like I had my ‘B’ game. My putting was A+, my wedge was A+, my short game was A+ and the drive was like a B. You know, I shot 20 under par in a major championship. Proud of myself for the way I handled adversity.”

DeChambeau didn’t collapse, per se, as Schauffele birdied the final hole to beat him by one stroke at 21 under. The LIV Golf star shot a final round of 8 under par, 64. He kept pushing and came up a little short.

However, it was still a tough way to end. Losing is hard, especially in golf, a game that barely makes sense.

McIlroy, meanwhile, is not the first (nor will he be the last) to suffer a heartbreaking defeat.

Look no further than Phil Mickelson’s mishap on the 72nd hole at Winged Foot in 2006 and Dustin Johnson’s three-putt miss at Chambers Bay in 2015.

Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images

However, both Mickelson and Johnson dealt with the situation after their respective collapses.

McIlroy didn’t.

Mickelson, after wasting the 18th and handing the title to Geoff Ogilvy, famously said: “I’m shocked, I can’t believe I just did that. I’m an idiot.”

Johnson, meanwhile, received 11 questions from the media in 2015, each focused primarily on what happened on the 18th green, where he gifted the championship to Jordan Spieth.

“Disappointed,” Johnson said on that fateful Father’s Day in the Pacific Northwest.

“I had all the opportunities in the world. I’m very proud of the way I hit the ball. Proud of the way I handled myself all day.”

Do you know how many questions McIlroy answered on Sunday?

Zero.

Instead of speaking to the press, or anyone from NBC Sports, McIlroy ran out to his car before DeChambeau accepted the trophy. His private plane was in the air at 7:30 p.m. ET, about 40 minutes after it failed on the 18th, and landed in South Florida an hour and 14 minutes later, according to Radar Atlas.

I understand that facing scrutiny in the age of social media and 24/7 news coverage is demanding and difficult, especially in times of distress and agony. I also know that you have a lot going on in your personal life. But McIlroy makes millions of dollars playing golf. Hundreds of people also cover the sport, which is nowhere near what McIlroy makes. His job is to share McIlroy’s perspective with millions of people around the world in an effort to grow the game and provide insight into one of the sport’s biggest events.

It is also McIlroy’s duty to explain what happened. It is also the right thing to do.

Do you think Scott Norwood of the Buffalo Bills wanted to meet with the media after missing the winning field goal in Super Bowl XXV? No. But he did. Norwood answered each and every question, as did Mickelson and Johnson.

That’s what professional athletes do.

Therefore, McIlroy made a big mistake by ignoring the media and not acknowledging DeChambeau. He’s better than that.

But at the end of the day, we are all human. Hopefully, McIlroy and others will learn from this mistake, because a mistake is only a mistake if you can’t learn from it.

Jack Milko is a golf writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter. @jack_milko also.