Rory McIlroy won the U.S. Open in June by shooting the lowest score in the tournament’s history. At 22 years old, he also became the tournament’s youngest winner in 88 years. But before that, McIlroy had choked away a four-hole lead entering the final round of the Master’s in April. McIlroy says the brutal showing left him in tears.
“I definitely felt like crying because the drive on the 13th was the one that took all my chances away,” McIlroy said.
“But I didn’t actually cry until the next morning, when I spoke to my mum and dad. I spoke to them before I went to the airport on the Monday. My mum might have said something like: ‘Oh don’t worry Rory, everything will be OK,’ and I just blubbed back: ‘No, it won’t be OK.’
“When did I last cry over golf? I don’t know – when I was kid, probably. It’s not worth crying over, is it? It’s only a game.”
Easy for McIlroy to say now that he’s a major winner. Even though golf is only a game, it’s easy to see why he was so disappointed with choking. Man, if I had choked away a lead that bad and lost what I had been working my entire life for, I probably would have broken down too. McIlroy says he wanted to prove to the world that he’s not a choker. He did that a few months later, which shows his mental strength. Now he has two years to win the British so his father can cash in.
