With a Sunday 75, Rory McIlroy Fails to Deliver at Tough Muirfield Village

The Ulsterman was tied for the lead coming into the final round but seven bogeys were his undoing.

DUBLIN, Ohio — The final numbers won’t be kind to Rory McIlroy. In a bottom-line business where the scorecard is the ultimate gauge of success, one of the world’s best was far less than that Sunday at the Memorial Tournament.

Tied for the lead through 54 holes, McIlroy made seven bogeys at on a tough Muirfield Village Golf Club course to fall out of contention and ultimately finish four strokes back of Viktor Hovland, who defeated Denny McCarthy in a sudden-death playoff.

The four-time major champion who is ranked third in the Official World Golf Ranking (No. 6 in the SI World Golf Rankings) was seeking his 24th PGA Tour victory and first since October, when he won the CJ Cup in South Carolina.

But he ran into a tough course—and ultimately Hovland and McCarthy, who each shot 70—and could not overcome some of the issues in his game.

The course played to an average of 74.985 during the final round, which means McIlroy’s 75 was actually not terrible, all things considered. Hovland’s winning score of 281 was the highest on the PGA Tour since Scottie Scheffler shot 283 to win the Arnold Palmer Invitational last year. (Scheffler shot 67 on Sunday to finish third, one shot out of the playoff.)

But this is Rory McIlroy. And the four-time major champion might have been expected to fare better, despite his recent struggles.

“It’s hard to chase on that golf course the way it was playing," said McIlroy, who lamented two bogeys on the front-nine par-5s holes, both of which he played his third shot from the fairway.

McIlroy hit just nine of 18 greens in regulation and ranked 52nd in the field in proximity to the hole.

As much as he said he’s been struggling with his swing, his wedge game certainly was an issue as well. He made four bogeys when he had a wedge from the fairway, while his strokes-gained off the tee and to the green ranked in the top seven in the field.

“I did what I wanted to do," he said. “I thought if I could stay patient and put my ball in play off the tee, which I did pretty much all day ... I only hit it in the long rough once. I was in the first cut three times and then the rest of the time I was in the fairway. So I did what I wanted to do. I just missed a few shots and a couple of—those two bogeys on the par-5s on the front nine were unforced errors.

“But I hit a couple of loose shots on the back nine that at least I know where they’re coming from, which is good. It’s probably a step in the right direction. I feel better about everything compared to a couple of weeks ago at Oak Hill (the PGA Championship). So it’s obviously not the result I wanted today, but I feel there were a few more positives than there was a couple weeks ago."

McIlroy tied for seventh at the PGA as well but spoke earlier this week about how he “never felt so uncomfortable over the ball." He explained how he managed to his game well enough during the tournament but did not feel good about his swing.

He’s been attempting to work out issues in his game that he said began to creep in late last year and festered. Even though he won the Dubai Desert Classic on the DP World Tour and tied for second at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, missed cuts at the Players Championship and especially the Masters suggested trouble.

And when McIlroy returned at the Wells Fargo Championship—where he had won three times—he hit just 20 of 54 fairways for the week.

Some of the driving issues have been worked out as well as hitting less club than a driver off the tee. But McIlroy hit only 39 of 72 greens for the week at Muirfield Village Golf Club.

He’s got another week to sort things out as the defending champion of the RBC Canadian Open before heading to the U.S. Open after that.

“It's funny, I have no idea where I finished, but—and this isn't a major championship—but I feel a lot more positive about things today than I was two weeks ago at Oak Hill,’’ he said. “Even though the results might reflect that I had a better week at Oak Hill, for example.

“But I feel a lot more positive about everything going forward. It's nice. I've got next week, get straight back on the horse again in Canada and try to take the learnings from this week and try to do a little bit better next week."