Rory McIlroy

Rory McIlroy has done it again. A couple of months removed from the absurd bunker-busting chip-in on the 72nd hole of the Masters, McIlroy splashed in ...

You’ve been hurt. You’ve been here before. A couple of months removed from the absurd bunker-busting chip-in on the 72nd hole of the Masters, McIlroy splashed in another at the Old Course on Saturday—this time for eagle and the outright lead (albeit briefly). The hole-out sent Golf Twitter into pure, unadulterated rapture, with the gifs pouring in thick and the illicit screengrabs fast.

Rory McIlroy is on a quest to end an eight-year major drought, and a holeout eagle from a bunker Saturday put him at the top of the leaderboard at St.

This year, McIlroy finished second at the Masters after a sparkling Sunday 64 -- which also featured a holed bunker shot, at the 18th hole. But he hasn't added to that total in the last eight years, a storyline that is reignited at every major. Viktor Hovland, playing with McIlroy in the second-to-last group, tied him moments later with a birdie at the 10th hole.

On an active day at the British Open, Rory McIlroy was on the move and is in position to win his fifth major.

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Rory McIlroy leans on skill to get it close and luck to sink a miracle shot on the 10th hole of the British Open on Saturday.

And it was a nice result.” He called it “skill to get it somewhere close, but it was luck that it went in the hole.” I mean, like the bunker shot he hit on No. 10 — like, disregarding the situation you’re in, that’s just a filthy bunker shot. “Watching Viktor hole a couple of long ones early on,” McIlroy said while recapping. At such moments must playing partners resist the urge to try keeping up or to just go ahead and flee the course. “Yeah, that hole was sort of perched up on a little crown there,” he said. McIlroy went on down there in the little hazard, 27 yards from the cup, to attempt another of the many recoveries in a golfer’s life. “I tried not to be too animated,” he said, “because D.J. and Scottie were trying to hit their tee shots on 11. That gnarly little bunker, to the front right of the green at No. 10, the par-4 titled “Bobby Jones,” became the first bunker Rory McIlroy had visited in his 46 holes to that point all week. I didn’t want to rile the crowd up too much because they obviously wanted to hit their tee shots.” At that moment, nobody much figured there would come the shot people might end up remembering from this exalted 150th British Open at the Old Course. At that moment, nobody much figured there would come a roar that didn’t quite blare across Scotland and across the Irish Sea to Northern Ireland but maybe got close. He tried to keep it just subdued enough to offset his face, which could not contain rapture. “I couldn’t really see,” Scheffler said.

With a Sunday 64 on the Old Course at St. Andrews, Australia's Cameron Smith won the 150th British Open for his first major title.

The only mistake he made was a poor approach to the 17th green, the Road Hole. You can’t miss it left there, and Smith did – leaving himself virtually no shot. His birdie at the 11th cut the lead to one before McIlroy followed with his birdie at the 10th. He had made five straight and gone a shot ahead of McIlroy. Smith then made birdies at the 12th, 13th and 14th holes – where he two-putted from 80 feet. And I'm going to try to make a dream come true tomorrow.’’ “The ovations coming on the greens, with the big grandstands.

Rory McIlroy and Cam Smith staged a furious battle down the stretch at St. Andrews to close out a remarkable British Open.

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Cameron Smith produced a sensational final-round 64 at St Andrews to overtake the overnight leader Rory McIlroy and claim the Open Championship.

With Greg Norman fronting the Saudi Arabian-backed operation, which McIlroy sits in such stark opposition to, there is a joke somewhere about Australians causing grief to the Northern Irishman. Now just may not be the time to tell it. With McIlroy and Viktor Hovland in the final group, it was the Norwegian who blinked first. It’s the way it is.” “If you lose by eight you don’t really care.” The 25-year-old’s curious major year has seen two missed cuts, a tied third and a second. Smith, who won the Players Championship in May, is enjoying the time of his life. The lead was now shared. McIlroy needed to make short work of the par five 14th but could not after failing to reach the green in two. He played with a day-four fearlessness that renders him the worthy champion of such a landmark event. Smith’s 19 under played McIlroy’s 18 under as the former birdied the 14th. Smith’s 20 under par saw off Young by one and a rueful but magnanimous McIlroy by two. The crowd offered an impromptu roar in vain hope of sporting fairytale. It is difficult to state McIlroy did much wrong during round four, save perhaps not capitalise appropriately on opportunity.

Even someone watching golf for the first time in their life on Sunday could have summed up why Rory McIlroy didn't win the 150th British Open.

In fact, McIlroy's final two-putt par on 18 left him in solo third behind Cameron Young, who eagled the hole moments before. And not literally, because, he obviously converted a lot of tap-ins—18 of them, in fact. Maybe during another year, but not one with a record-tying score of 20 under.

Cameron Smith stole the claret jug from Rory McIlroy's grasp, carding six birdies Sunday at St. Andrews and capping a 64-64 weekend to win the 150th Open ...

"I was expecting I was going to hang in there for a little bit longer. Yeah, just really proud of how I kind of knuckled down today and managed to get it done." What it means: Coming into this 150th Open, McIlroy spoke of the significance of winning a claret jug at St. Andrews’ prized Old Course. He called the achievement the “holy grail” of professional golf, so though McIlroy already possessed one Open title, in 2014 at Royal Liverpool, he wanted this one badly. Smith added a birdie at the last with a closing 8-under 64, but he actually won this championship a hole earlier, at the par-4 Road Hole, where he piped a drive down the fairway only to smother one left and well short of the green. If I had made the birdies there from good positions, it probably would have been a different story." Yeah, managed to get away with a 4 there." "I kind of had to draw a 9-iron in there. It's one that I feel like I let slip away, but there will be other opportunities." Yeah, just stuck to what I was doing. No bunkers, no three-putts, take care of the drivable par 4s and take care of the par 5s. "It's just one of those days where I played a really controlled round of golf. And for good measure, he didn’t miss a green in regulation.

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland – "With a score of 268, the winner of the gold medal and the Champion Golfer of the Year, is Cameron Smith." At 7 p.m. local time, ...

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The four-time major winner, eight years into trying for the fifth, hit every green in the final round at St. Andrews. It just turned out that Cameron Smith ...

As he said, “It's one of the best seasons I've had in a long time.” As Hovland said: “He's come awfully close and played really well this year. The crowd showered McIlroy with affection all week – not just because of his previous achievements or how he played, but because of the stands he has taken. He had to make a 33-yard chip through the Valley of Sin to force a playoff. This week, McIlroy came as close as a player could to winning a major without actually winning the major. McIlroy had a terrific year at the majors: second at the Masters, eighth at the PGA, tied for fifth at the U.S. Open, and third here. He was patient and poised – and ultimately, he was just a victim of Cam Smith’s excellence, like everybody else. If he had needed birdie on 18, he probably would have made one and shot a final-round 69. He needed to make a putt or two, and he needed Smith to not shoot a closing 64 like he did. If he had made one mid-range putt earlier in the round, he probably would have forced a playoff. That was part of a pattern: He has often shown up, played himself out of contention early, and then played freely with the pressure off and made a backdoor top 10. He took the lead Saturday night, and he said, “my hotel room is directly opposite the big yellow board on 18 there, right of the 1st. If he made a significant mistake, it was tactical: “There's a lot of putts today where I couldn't just trust myself to start it inside the hole.

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland – Rory McIlroy let himself dream. He couldn't help it.

“I was always starting it on the edge or just outside thinking it was going to move. While Smith was in the midst of his birdie streak, McIlroy couldn’t capitalize on two of St. Andrews’ drivable par-4s, Nos. 9 and 12, and parred the par-5 14th when a birdie would have pulled him even with Smith. McIlroy missed long birdie putts on 15 and 16, as well, and a 20-footer on the difficult 17th after Smith had two-putted from behind the Road Bunker. Smith’s birdie on the final hole meant McIlroy needed to make eagle on 18. A round on the historic grounds elicits a variety of emotions. This the first time in his career that McIlroy has finished in the top 10 in all four majors. He drove it well and didn’t make a bogey, but also couldn’t hit his approach shots close enough or take advantage of the Old Course’s drivable par-4s. He spoke this week about the trust he has in his game, and the freedom it has produced. “I just couldn't find the shots or the putts to do that.” His 70 left him in third place, two strokes behind winner Cameron Smith. Smith birdied the first five holes of the back nine and closed with 30 en route to a Sunday 64. A win would have tied Ballesteros with five major triumphs and leave him one short of Faldo’s record for most majors by a European player since World War I. McIlroy is the player in today’s game who gives the most consideration to context. His legacy is his priority at this point in his career, and only a victory at Augusta National would do more for it. But each time he peered out his hotel-room window, he allowed himself to imagine what could have been the most important victory of his career. The enormous yellow scoreboard that stood stories above St. Andrews’ final hole stared back at him whenever he looked out the window of his hotel room.

Cameron Smith charged his way into history on the Old Course, a Sunday stunner at St. Andrews that sent the Australian to his first major by overcoming Rory ...

He left short a 6-foot putt with about a foot of break on the 15th. The nefarious Road Hole bunker was between him and the flag on the 17th. He came up short with a wedge on the next hole. He hit a nifty pitch to 5 feet for birdie on the short 10th. From 80 feet away, his pace up the slope and toward the cup was close to perfect, leaving him a tap-in birdie to finish at 20-under 268. He started the final round four shots behind and was still three behind when he made the turn. And he got no help from Smith, whose one missed shot set up his biggest challenge. His 8-under 64 was the lowest final round by a champion in the 30 times golf's oldest championship has been played at St. Andrews. And I just couldn't. I got beaten by the better player this week. "It's pretty cool to be on there. "The putter went cold on me," McIlroy said. McIlroy couldn't make a putt early.