Rory McIlroy hit back at a US Open heckler with a cheeky gesture at Shinnecock Hills as he reflected on disappointing performance
Rory McIlroy hit back at a US Open heckler by mocking their size before an underwhelming final round at Shinnecock Hills. McIlroy is well accustomed to boisterous New York crowds after being heavily targeted during the Ryder Cup at Bethpage last year, and he refused to let the jibes go unanswered this week.
Footage surfaced on social media on Sunday of spectators loudly taunting one of the six-time major champion’s drives to land in the bunker. The clip was captured during Saturday’s third round, and McIlroy’s response was filmed, gesturing that the man yelling at him had a sizeable stomach.
It was an intensely frustrating tournament for the Northern Irishman, who was his own harshest critic and loudly berated himself after a series of mistakes. He at least secured a moment of payback on one of his hecklers with a cheeky retort. He also had comments from the gallery at the PGA Championship last month, having a spectator removed from Aronimink after a heckle late in his final round.
McIlroy concluded with a three-over-par 73 to finish outside the top 30 at six over. But it was on Saturday when the opportunity to challenge slipped through his fingers.
The 37-year-old reached two under par for the tournament with a succession of front-nine birdies, but he collapsed after making the turn and ended the day 10 shots behind 54-hole leader Wyndham Clark. McIlroy was heard on the broadcast telling himself to “go home” after an early error on his final round, and afterwards he said: “I think [Shinnecock] won the battle over me at this point.
“I think looking back on the entire week, I’ll obviously rue the back nine yesterday. I got myself to two under par for the tournament after nine yesterday, and then the wheels came off and I played a really bad back nine. I sort of shot myself out of the tournament then. Obviously was really disappointed coming away from the course last night.
“You try to come out here today positive and you try to muster up the energy to put a good one in there, but a couple of bogeys on the front nine, I was just trying to race my way to the 18th green.”
McIlroy will sit out next week’s Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands, opting instead to head back to his new home near London, England, to gear up for next month’s Open Championship at Royal Birkdale.
“I’ll be playing some links golf this week probably coming up, but yeah, it’s my favorite time of the year to go back home and play, play The Open, and I get to spend a bit of time back there,” he said.
“This was not too dissimilar to an Open Championship in terms of how the golf course started to play over the weekend, but a bit of links golf over the next couple of weeks will be nice.”
