I remember now why I don’t play here, it’s tough – McIlroy
RORY McILROY has admitted he may not return to Harbour Town
Golf Links any time soon after a tied-41st finish at the RBC Heritage at the weekend.
The World No 1 had given himself a sliver of a chance at mounting a come-from-behind run at the title on the final day having pulled back to within five shots of the leaders with a strong third round in South
Carolina.
But in the end it would have needed a final round in the 50s for McIlroy to have been in with a shot of winning as Webb Simpson’s excellent finish saw the overnight leader pull away and win by a single stroke from Abraham Ancer at 22-under par.
Instead, it was another frustrating final round for McIlroy, who dropped two shots in his opening seven holes and never recovered, with his one-under 70 only good enough to get him to 11-under par and a middle-of-the-pack finish.
“Once I got here and I played the golf course, I sort of remembered why I haven’t been here for a while. It’s tough,” McIlroy acknowledged.
“It’s a lovely place. There’s other courses on Tour that probably fit my game a little bit better and obviously the week after the Masters (when the tournament is traditionally held in mid-April) is always a tough one.
“Guys like to come here and decompress, but my idea of decompression is not seeing golf clubs for a week.”
Despite picking up a birdie at the par-five second, McIlroy’s hopes of mounting a challenge were derailed when he took on the tight pin at the par-three fourth and found the water with his tee shot, leading to a double-bogey five.
Consolation
Another bogey followed at the par-three seventh, meaning birdies at the ninth, 15th and 17th were scant consolation for the 31-year-old, who will now turn his attention to this week’s Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands in Connecticut, the third event on the PGA Tour’s post-lockdown schedule. Meanwhile, August’s US PGA Championship is scheduled to go ahead at San Francisco’s TPC Harding Park without spectators. The event will be the year’s first Major after July’s Open Championship was postponed until next year and the Masters and US Open were moved back to November and September respectively.