Rory McIlroy ‘blanked’ Tiger Woods after U.S. Open heartbreak

Rory McIlroy’s U.S. Open collapse has been well-documented over the previous month.

The inexplicable brief miss on 16, his failure to rise up and down on 18, the dangerous break on the par-5 fifth, and the misfire on the par-3 fifteenth will all dwell in infamy eternally, because it saved McIlroy’s 10-year main drought intact. He got here up simply in need of Bryson DeChambeau, who made a miraculous par save on the 18th gap within the group behind McIlroy to win by one. As a end result, McIlroy left Pinehurst No. 2 abruptly, spoke to no one, and obtained airborne as rapidly as potential.

In the next days, McIlroy took a visit to Manhattan, the place he collected his ideas and wandered alongside The High Line together with his AirPods in his ears. Just a few acknowledged him, although most didn’t. But he then determined to alter his telephone quantity to additional distance himself from the fray, which led to a humorous circumstance with Tiger Woods.

Woods, a mentor and shut good friend of McIlroy’s, watched the 2024 U.S. Open unfold identical to everybody else. But sensing the tense, uncooked emotion of the second, Woods determined to attend per week earlier than reaching out to McIlroy.

“I needed to let it relax,” Woods defined Tuesday forward of The Open.

Photo by Keyur Khamar/PGA Tour by way of Getty Images

“I do know he was being besieged by loads of various things occurring, and simply let it calm down for per week. Then I despatched him a pleasant textual content, and that’s it.”

As for what that textual content learn:

“Just mainly, I’m your good friend. I do know it is a tough second. We’ve all been there as champions. We all lose,” Woods stated.

“Unfortunately, it simply occurred, and the uncooked emotion of it, it’s nonetheless there, and it’s going to be there for a while. The sooner he can get again on a horse and get again into rivalry, like he did final week [at the Genesis Scottish Open], the higher it’s for him.”

But as a result of McIlroy modified his quantity, he by no means obtained Woods’ message.

“I didn’t get it till he instructed me about it at this time,” McIlroy stated.

Photo by Owen Humphreys/Getty Images

“I used to be like, ‘Oh, thanks very a lot.’ So I blanked Tiger Woods, which might be not a very good factor.”

The two mates laughed about it on Tuesday at Royal Troon, which is able to host The Open for the tenth time this week.

“Tiger has been nothing however unimaginable to me over the course of my profession within the good moments and the dangerous. He despatched me an unimaginable message after St Andrews in 2022,” McIlroy added.

“It means rather a lot. It means rather a lot that he reached out. Actually, it means rather a lot that he waited a couple of days to succeed in out, which, if he hadn’t waited that lengthy, I most likely would have gotten it. But I caught up with him earlier. It’s all the time good when your hero and the man that you simply had in your bed room wall is reaching out and providing phrases of encouragement.”

Jack Milko is a golf employees author for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be positive to take a look at @_PlayingThrough for extra golf protection. You can observe him on Twitter @jack_milko as effectively.