Rory McIlroy - 4 Time Major Winner

I reckon he wins the fed ex

Wouldn’t say he played well today !! He played conservatively and I think with Hovland dropping a shot he thought he would just have to beat him .

Himself and Hovland had the worse scores of the Top 15 today and that course was there for the taking. I reckon if he was 2 or 3 shots behind going into final round he would have shot 66 at least ..

Nobody grows up dreaming of winning the Fed Ex

Rory did great can’t legislate for someone else shooting like that

I am happy he's contending. Delighted for him he seems to be enjoying golf again which is half the battle.

Truly gutted as to win thr 150th would have been special. Yes it was easier than most majors but in 10 years time no one will say how easy it was they will just remember the winner.

Well for me it is because Mcllroy has an in built cockiness, and is arguably more talented than all the other golfers you mention.

His flicking between British one minute, Irish the next and British another day is also a factor for other people. But the latter does not seem to hold as much relevance at this stage.

My elderly father loves his Golf and always tunes in to 'watch Rory' if he is in any competition. Loves Golf etc. But in the last few years I have even noticed may fathers attitude has changed towards 'Rory'.

He has got annoyed with him for blowing competitions, 'making an eejit' of himself as he puts it. And not focusing. Yet my father seems to only have a consistent 'Grá' for Lowry at this stage. He does not get annoyed with him- half as much, if ever.

Now I did not bother asking the auld fella what he would say after this loss. Because I know what he would say. 'Rory couldn't putt'. So I assume he will not be half as frustrated as watching him, on previous times.

Personally I think Mcllroy did well and nearly did enough to win, his gameplan was not to do anything stupid, it nearly worked. Plenty of times in the past you could correctly accuse Mcllroy of 'choking' based on the situation and his talent. But on this occasion it was not because Mcllroy 'made an eejit of himself' as in previous Major tournaments.

You reference Robbie Keane, but I think that is a poor example. Why? Because Robbie Keane consistently turned up when it mattered on big days. Mcllroy wilted on big days more often than not. But ironically the 2022 Open was not one of them, even though he lost this time.

McIlroy didn’t choke. He hit every green in regulation on a Sunday in a major. Smith had an absolute day out for himself and fully deserved it. Mcilroy went bogey free and came up short. It happens.

This “choking” thing is tiresome at this stage. Choking is blowing a lead, he didn’t blow anything he just got gunned down by Smith who played better. If the winning score was -14 or -15 I’d say McIlroy blew it but look at the winning score, -20 and a tie for the lowest open score ever.

I think the reason McIlroy gets a hard time is because he was known from a young age and was expected to become a top professional. People saw early he was a once in lifetime talent. So there was an expectation he'd be up there challenging for majors, the fact he won 4 early reinforced that. It may feel now to many he's underachieving

With the likes of Lowry there was no guarantee he'd even make it on the tour, many would never have expected a major or becoming a World Top 50 player. So it feels he's in bonus territory in some ways

Plus I think people look and still see Lowry as one of the lads. You could see him wandering into a gaa game, people can relate their life a bit more to him

McIlroy on the other hand is a global face, I'm sure he can't go many places with being recognized or hassled. So he's seen on another level and probably judged harder as a result

I don’t think “because they’re so bloody hard to win” is an all encompassing explanation as to why he hasn’t won a major since 2014, you should add to that the fact that at times he has scuttled his chances by playing poorly, and at other times like this weekend he just didn’t perform well enough on Sunday when all those around him had and the course seem to be playing relatively easy, had he done so, he would be the Champion golfer this morning.

He played well, just not well enough to get the job done, he didn’t need a great round to win yesterday, above average would been enough. Winning on Sunday should not have been hard for him.

another factor aswell compared to other era's is that the competition is so good right now. A player isn't going to dominate like tiger anymore, you will have fits and spurts like Keapka, spieth etc. We have 4 first time major winners this year. The only criticism of McIlroy i would have was when he was putting well on thursday and saturday he should've went lower, one of the two 66's should've being 63 64, i think he had a bad putt for a eagle on one hole and only birdie.

The world no.1 shot 74, the world no.2 shot 70, the world no.3 shot 70, the world no.4 missed the cut, the world no.5 shot 70.

These are the rankings prior to this weekends results.

Fact of the matter is that if Rory didn't have to go for eagle on the last he almost certainly would have tied Tiger's record for lowest tournament score in the Open.

Fact is that record was broken, and had to be broken to beat Rory.

You see you are only looking at the last round. If he shot the 70 in rounds 1,2 or 3 there wouldn't be a word about it.

You have to look at all four days not just round 4. If somebody shot 70, 70, 70, 60 they wouldn't win this year's Open.

If my auntie had balls she’d be my uncle, I feel for him he let it slip away but the good news is he is back to his best the last six months so I’m sure he’ll get more chances next year

He's only a Master's win away from being considered one of the greatest, and today might make that less likely but he'll have a chance there if he can keep his current form up.