Rory McIlroy Holds Back Tears During Interview Following Missed Cut At The Open

Getty Image / Glyn Kirk

There’s always more added pressure when it comes to majors, but for Rory McIlroy this week there was a bit of added weight on his shoulders. The Open returned to Royal Portrush in his home country of Northern Ireland for the first time in 68 years. It was a homecoming of sorts for McIlroy in what is the biggest sporting event in the country’s history.

But for Rory things did not go as planned as he missed the cut on Friday by a single stroke.

Thursday was a disastrous day for McIlroy as he started his Open with a quadruple-bogey at the first after pulling his tee shot out of bounds. His first-round also featured a double and triple bogey as well on way to an 8-over 79.

McIlroy was beating a total of five golfers in the field when the first-round concluded.

Things were bleak, to say the least, but maybe there was magic to be had on Friday and McIlroy could squeeze into the weekend making the cut and play in front of his biggest fans for two more rounds.

He didn’t go away quietly. He made the turn at 2-under for the day then reeled off three straight birdies on the back to make things extremely interesting. He snagged two more birdies at the 14th and 16th to move to six-under on the day.

While this was going on the cut-line was flirting to move to 2-over but ultimately didn’t quite make it there leaving Rory on the outside looking in. He needed one more birdie to get there but was unable to create birdie chances on his final two holes before carding a 65.

After the round, McIlroy caught up with the media and was emotional holding back tears.

“I didn’t play my part, but everyone in Northern Ireland played theirs.” Man, what a quote. You can see how much this week meant to him and how much of a load he seemed to be carrying with each and every swing throughout the week. He almost pulled it off and put on an unbelievable performance down the stretch on Friday.

There are few people in sports that keep it as real as McIlroy does with the media. He’s a guy that always tells it how it is and always takes his time to articulate great answers. His post-round interview was no different.