TROON, Scotland — Tuesday marked exactly 30 days since Rory McIlroy missed those two short putts on the final three holes in the final round at Pinehurst No. 2 and allowed the U.S. Open to slip through his hands.
The pain was evident on his ashen face as he staggered off the 18th hole dazed on his way into the scoring tent.
And it was even more apparent as the tires of his SUV courtesy car tore through the gravel in the Pinehurst parking lot moments after Bryson DeChambeau seized the moment McIlroy had ruefully left behind to win.
In the immediate aftermath of perhaps the most devastating defeat of his career, which has been starved for a fifth major for 10 years and counting, McIlroy received dozens of texts on his cell phone.
One of them was from Tiger Woods, who on Tuesday revealed he sent an encouraging note to McIlroy about a week after the U.S. Open, purposely allowing the dust to settle from the defeat.
“I just sent him a nice text, that was it,’’ Woods said. “I waited a week before I sent it. I wanted to let it calm down. I know he was being besieged by a lot of different things going on, and just let it cool down for a week.”
The message?
“Just basically, ‘As you know, I’m your friend. I know this is a difficult moment. We’ve all been there as champions. We all lose,’” Woods said. “Unfortunately, it just happened, and the raw emotion of it, it’s still there, and it’s going to be there for, I’m sure, some time. The faster he’s able to get back on a horse and get back into contention, like he did last week, the better it is for him.’’
A funny thing happened along the way from Woods’ text until Tuesday: McIlroy never got the message … until Tuesday.
“Full disclosure, I changed my number two days after the U.S. Open, so I didn’t get it until he told me about it today,’’ McIlroy said. “I was like, ‘Oh, thanks very much.’ So, I blanked Tiger Woods, which is probably not a good thing.
“Tiger has been nothing but incredible to me over the course of my career in the good moments and the bad. He sent me an incredible message after (losing at) St Andrews in 2022. I met Tiger when I was 15 years old, and I’ve built up a great relationship with him, his whole family. He really enjoys spending time with my mom and dad as well.
“So, yeah, it means a lot that he reached out. Actually, it means a lot that he waited a few days to reach out, which if he hadn’t have waited that long, I probably would have got it. It’s always nice when your hero and the guy that you had (a poster of) on your bedroom wall is reaching out and offering words of encouragement.”
McIlroy was asked, a bit tongue-in-cheek, if there are “five stages of grief,’’ if he added another one by changing his number.
“It wasn’t out of grief, but OK,’’ McIlroy said with a laugh.
He said it took him three or four days after Pinehurst before he came out of his funk.
A trip to Manhattan eased the pain as he walked the High Line alone in his thoughts, listening to tunes in his earbuds and ate at one of his favorite New York City restaurants, Le Bernardin.
He called the trip to Manhattan “liberating in some way,’’ adding, “The thing is just to get out, to not be on a (TV) screen, to look around. I think trying to find the joy from the small things in life I think is really important.
“Going there especially is a good reset, just in terms of seeing everyone living their lives and the hustle and the bustle. Honestly, no one gave a s–t if I missed the putt at Pinehurst. It’s a nice perspective to keep … just to go and get lost in a big city like that and just be one of the herd sort of going about your day. For me, it’s a nice feeling.’’
It was in New York City, McIlroy said, where he was able to refocus himself from the agony of the U.S. Open defeat to the things he’s been doing well.
“I went from being very disappointed and dejected to trying to focus on the positives to then wanting to learn from the negatives and then getting to the point where you become enthusiastic and motivated to go again,’’ he said. “It’s funny how your mindset can go from ‘I don’t want to see a golf course for a month’ to like four days later being can’t wait to get another shot at it.
“When that disappointment turns to motivation, that’s when it’s time to go again.”