RORY MCILROY CAME agonisingly close to a hole-in-one at Pebble Beach’s iconic seventh hole, but the world number three had to settle for a top-10 finish at the US Open.
McIlroy watched his tee-shot at the 102-yard par three finish inches away from the hole, after a horror start to his final round had severely dented the four-time Major winner’s hopes of mounting a challenge on Sunday.
Rory nearly with an ACE on 7! #USOpen pic.twitter.com/HMX5V1ScCl
— U.S. Open (USGA) (@usopengolf) June 16, 2019
Standing on the second tee six-under par and five shots adrift of leader Gary Woodland, McIlroy walked off with a double-bogey six on his card after getting caught up in the Pebble Beach rough.
A poor tee-shot, which found some seriously deep rough in front of a fairway bunker, was compounded when McIlroy hacked his second shot into the sand.
From there, he put his third into a greenside bunker and, unable to get up and down to save bogey, took a damaging six to fall seven shots behind.
McIlroy steadied the ship with a par on the next but was wildly inconsistent thereafter, mixing birdies at four, six and seven with bogeys on five and eight.
He eventually signed for a final-round 72 to finish on five-under, with Graeme McDowell two shots behind on three-under.
Not the best shot Rory McIlroy will ever hit...
— Sky Sports Golf (@SkySportsGolf) June 16, 2019
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