SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. — It has proven virtually impossible to exist at this U.S. Open without thinking about the last time Shinnecock Hills hosted one, in 2018. The broadcast shows photos of it. The USGA has been cramming to not fail another exam. Even the best players in the world have images of that week painted on the walls of their brains, now nearly a decade later.
“[Today] was a day to really just keep yourself in the tournament and not shoot yourself out of it,” Rory McIlroy said, “which is exactly what I did eight years ago here.”
Shinnecock is less a place and more an idea for McIlroy, who guided his ball around it in 69 shots Thursday. Shinnecock was the last U.S. Open venue that stuffed him in a locker. The last test of mindful, stern, U.S. Open golf that he couldn’t handle.
In 2018, McIlroy didn’t just miss the cut, he failed to break 80 in the first round, bombing out of relevancy before he even made the turn. He ended that year journaling in a private jet, writing a promise to himself that he would build his game to “excel at the toughest tests that we have.”
That meant saying goodbye to the old Rory — the one who hit high, striking draws everywhere. The one who played so aggressively that his game teetered on the edge at times, occasionally sliding off the side. The one who showed up at the 2018 Travelers Championship, one week after Shinnecock’s last Open, and suddenly felt all cozy again. He shot 64 in that first round in Hartford and finished the week tied for 12th, but part of him had to hate it.
“I remember feeling so much in my comfort zone going to TPC River Highlands,” McIlroy said, “and thinking to myself, I’ve got this backwards. I should be in my comfort zone at Shinnecock and not here.”
It sounds dramatic but in a way then, yes, McIlroy has been building toward this week for eight years. And building toward next year’s U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, too. He’s become a top-tier putter, which was a bugaboo back then. He’s added more shots to his bag — like low, tumbling drivers or sawed off, punchy irons that cut the wind — not just the ones that bend so comfortably from right to left. On Thursday, amid a gusty morning on a firm track, it was a few of those shots that actually led to bogeys on his final two holes, sliding him back from three under and the solo lead. But he knows one thing: those shots are the right shots. They’ve worked at the last two Masters tournaments. They’ve netted him six U.S. Open top 10s in the last seven years.
“It hasn’t looked as if I’ve went and done a rebuild of my game,” McIlroy said, “but it’s felt like it in terms of the way I approach the game and the value I place on certain shots and certain skills within the game.”
Every piece of information mentioned above — the 30,000-foot-high journaling above the Middle East, the quotes about the Travelers, the idea of flighting shots that he once thought foolish — all came out in one fluid answer during McIlroy’s post-round press conference Thursday. You can tell he’s told that story before. You can tell it’s his truth. And if you’ve been watching McIlroy intently over the last 14 months, you can connect the dots between it and his greatest desires.
As a means of internal inspiration, McIlroy followed his career Grand Slam by outlining, very specifically, the exact tournaments he wants to win. He wants an Olympic medal (and will have to wait patiently another two years). He wants to win an Open Championship at St. Andrews (which could happen next summer). And he wants better stamps in his U.S. Open passport.
“Maybe a U.S. Open at one of those, like, old, traditional golf courses,” he told the BBC in January. “Whether it’s Shinnecock this year, Winged Foot, Pebble, Merion.”
If that sounds like McIlroy is writing a script, it would make sense. More than any other pro, his career has followed the arc of a three-act play — the four early majors, the decade of none, and this third act of near-constant contention. That would make Shinnecock in 2018 some sort of badly needed intermission. The kind that makes a lot more sense when the show crescendos at the end.
