Escape to Manhattan, changing his phone number… how McIlroy bounced back from US Open meltdown

Tiger Woods bided his time before trying to ease some of Rory McIlroy’s pain with a text message after the US Open last month. He got no response.

It took two days for McIlroy to realize he needed a change: a new number after he had entered the wrong one, meaning Woods had missed the cut.

But the Northern Irishman had his reasons. He wanted to quiet the noise outside, while there was already enough shouting going on inside his own head.

McIlroy had a good laugh about it yesterday in Troon, which happened to be the same day he heard about Woods’ attempt to get in touch almost a month ago. “Full disclosure, I changed my number two days after the US Open, so I didn’t get it until he told me,” he said.

“I thought, ‘Oh, thank you very much.’ So I ignored Tiger Woods, which is probably not a good thing.

McIlroy bogeyed three of his last four shots to hand a late lead to Bryson Dechambeau

McIlroy recently called off his divorce from Erica Stoll (left) in a shocking turnaround

“But I caught up with him earlier. It’s always nice when your hero and the man you had on your bedroom wall reaches out to you and offers words of encouragement.”

There have been plenty of such private words over the past four weeks. Rafael Nadal and Michael Jordan were among the high-rollers who reached McIlroy’s inbox before the shutdowns, and others were more pointed and public in their assessments of such a heartbreaking moment in his career.

Choke is a powerful and incendiary term in sport. It’s not one McIlroy himself has used, but unfortunately it would encompass two missed putts from inside four feet in his last three holes as he collapsed under the weight of a 10-year quest for a fifth major title. If it was painful to watch, you can only imagine how agonizing it was to endure as American Bryson DeChambeau lifted the trophy.

As ever with McIlroy, whose near misses over the past decade have been thoroughly documented, it has become a question of how he will respond to disappointment. The coming days at the Open Championship will tell us whether the perfect answer is forthcoming and it would be foolish to ignore that possibility in the final major of the year.

McIlroy, 35, has been noticeably relaxed since arriving here. He finished fourth at the Scottish Open on Sunday, ending his three-week break from the game after Pinehurst, and laughed his way through a practice round with Darren Clarke yesterday.

“I know I’m in a good position,” McIlroy said. “When I think back to 2015 through 2020, that five-year period, I rarely had a realistic chance of winning a major championship. So I’d much rather have these close calls. It means I’m getting closer.”

If optimistic thinking is the staple of someone who takes part in an insane undertaking, then you have to note that McIlroy has a knack for finding positive voices in the media.

That’s surely a skill honed by necessity for a man who has won multiples of everything in the game bar a major since 2014, and whose attempts to crack the sport have led him to explore everything from juggling for the Masters to reading the works of Marcus Aurelius at the Ryder Cup. He’s seen stoicism as the 15th club in his bag, but that grip has certainly worn thin at times.

McIlroy pictured during a practice round at Royal Troon ahead of the 152nd Open Championship

McIlroy took a break from competition to recharge after his US Open defeat

Woods (L) and McIlroy (R) have won 19 majors between them, although neither has won since 2019.

Rebuilding Pinehurst required a familiar soul-searching exercise, one that began with his decision to withdraw from a PGA Tour tournament, the Travelers Championship, held the week after the U.S. Open. Instead, he flew from his home in Florida to Manhattan and spent a few days walking the High Line alone with his headphones on. Like the new phone number, it was about finding some “space.”

McIlroy revisited that scene yesterday, saying, “It was liberating. It’s about getting out, not being on a screen, looking around, and trying to find the joy in the little things in life. Going there was a good reset, just in terms of seeing everyone living their own lives and the hustle and bustle.

“Honestly, nobody cared if I missed the putt at Pinehurst. It’s a nice perspective to keep. You just get lost in a big city like that and you’re one of the herds going through your day. For me, that’s a nice feeling.”

According to McIlroy, it didn’t take long for the gloom to lift. ‘I would say after three or four days I went from being really disappointed and depressed to trying to focus on the positives, to wanting to learn from the negatives, and then getting to the point where you get excited and motivated to go again.

“It’s funny how your mindset can change from ‘I don’t want to see a golf course for a month’ to four days later trying again. When that disappointment turns into motivation, it’s time to go again.” Those close to him are convinced he can recover, even despite a sporting trauma that came so soon after the domestic turmoil of a divorce and subsequent decision to reconcile with his wife Erica Stoll.

When asked by Mail Sport last week about McIlroy’s Open prospects, European Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald said: ‘Every golfer, every human being, who saw Rory finish with those missed putts really felt for him. I certainly did.

“Of course I would have liked to see Rory pull through after 10 years without a major, but time and time again he comes back stronger than most. He’s had a lot of distractions in his life lately and the last couple of years, and for him to be able to play at that level is remarkable to me.

Rory McIlroy had a big smile on his face as he spoke to reporters in Scotland ahead of kick-off on Thursday

Good friend Tiger Woods spoke encouraging words to McIlroy after his US Open defeat

McIlroy has a solid record in Scotland, with five top-six finishes in seven races

“He’s one of the best players who ever played.”

When McIlroy discussed what went wrong that Sunday in North Carolina, he said he made the mistake of getting distracted by DeChambeau on those final holes, which in turn hampered his own rhythm on the greens. Any criticism of Harry Diamond, his caddie, for how things got out of hand was dismissed as hopelessly unfair by McIlroy and his putting coach Brad Faxon.

Faxon recently responded to a question from Mail Sport and referred to Diamond McIlroy’s ‘special sauce’. There is no change imminent on that particular point. Faxon also disputed any notion of a flaw in the golfer’s putting stroke, saying: ‘There is so much about this game, particularly putting, that we want to know what is happening.

“Is that a mechanical thing, or is it the way your mind works? I think that’s why we love and hate this game — what it can do to the human mind. There was absolutely nothing wrong with Rory’s swing. He had made 469 of those three-foot-and-under putts in a row. That’s just a situation that sometimes hits the best of the best players in the world.”

No one will doubt that McIlroy is among the best in the world and has been for 14 years. The fascinating question is whether long walks and new phone numbers will be the twists and turns that will finally bring him back to the top of a major ranking.