McIlroy looked to have one hand on the trophy but late missed putts cost him dearly
Rory McIlroy teeing off from the 4th during the final day of the Amgen Irish Open at Royal County Down in Newcastle. Photograph: Peter Morrison/PA Wire
But fate, and the golfing gods, decreed that Højgaard, not McIlroy, reigned supreme on a links where another Dane, Søren Kjeldsen, had won in 2015. McIlroy had entered the final round with the solo lead and, step by step, strengthened it. A birdie on the first, another on the second. By the time he walked off the fourth green McIlroy had a four shot cushion over his pursuers. One hand, it seemed, on the trophy?
Højgaard finished birdie-birdie-birdie to take the clubhouse lead. Still, McIlroy had destiny in his own hands. Until he didn’t. His approach to the 15th hit the green but scurried down and off into a swale from which he failed to get up and down. A bogey. McIlroy knew the stakes when standing over the putt. Silence all around him. “I thought I hit the putt with good enough speed for it to sort of come down the hill a little more. It just hung up there. Maybe the wind had a little to do with that coming out of the left,” said McIlroy of the missed eagle putt followed by the tap-in birdie that gave him a round of 68 and solo second, a shot ahead of Manassero. But one behind Højgaard.
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