Slugger Rory lives up to his pledge to go down fighting

After a disappointing year of missed cuts and missed opportunities, Rory Mcilroy had promised to go down swinging at Carnoustie – and he duly delivered.

The aggression that he had vowed to show in yesterday’s final round was on display from the first tee to the last green as the Ulsterman gave it a lash before falling two shots short and sharing second place on six under.

For a while, though, it appeared as if he might just muscle his way through a packed field through his sheer force of personality and desire. Even early bogeys at two and five were not enough to stop his bull-in-a-china-shop charge as he prioritised length over accuracy and ended up hitting just 40 per cent of fairways.

Yet Mcilroy’s high-risk gambit worked, and as the most remarkable Open finish for many years gradually bubbled up to boiling point, birdies at nine and then 11 brought him roaring back into contention just as it seemed that his challenge was foundering.

“When I made birdie on 11, I saw that Tiger [Woods] was leading on his own at seven under,” he said. “I had just gotten to five under, so at two behind with a few holes left, I thought I was right in it.”

Despite a bogey at 12, Mcilroy’s challenge reignited when he rattled in a gargantuan 55-foot eagle putt on the par-five 14th.

Now back to six under and briefly in a six-way tie for the lead after Woods dropped three shots in two holes after the turn, Mcilroy said he instinctively knew that he would need at least one more birdie if he was to have any chance of claiming his fifth major.

“When the eagle putt went in on 14, I felt that if I could get one or two out of these last four holes, then I was in with a chance. But where they’d put the pins and with the wind, it was tough to get them close and tough to make birdies, so the only real chance was at the last. Even if I had held that putt, I would have come up one short.”

However, Mcilroy’s primary aim at Carnoustie was to press the reset button, and from that standpoint, he was well satisfied with his week’s work. At the first two majors of the year, the 29-year-old adopted a conservative game-plan that bordered on the timid.

Playing with irons off the tee was as unsuccessful as it was unpalatable. After missing the cut at the Players Championship and the US Open, he meekly shot a 74 on the Sunday at Augusta as his playing partner, Patrick Reed, took the plaudits and the Green Jacket.

A shamefaced Mcilroy admitted that in fearing failure he had failed to commit to success. This week, he promised, would be different. And so it was.

“I’m happy with how I played,” he said. “I didn’t get off to a great start, but I hung in there, and I battled back. I just ran out of holes at the end, but I don’t feel like it’s a defeat. I feel like it’s a good week – I committed to everything, I hit the shots when I needed to, I had some clutch putts coming down the stretch, I made good swings on 17 and on 18.”

Mcilroy invariably rises to the challenge during the Open, winning at Hoylake in 2014 and finishing joint fifth and fourth in the past two years.

This year, however, as well as redressing the balance from his failure at Sawgrass, Shinnecock Hills and Augusta, he clearly has one eye on next year’s tournament at Portrush in his native Northern Ireland.

His other eye was drawn forcibly to the return of Woods, and it was entertaining listening to Mcilroy attempting to play down the significance of the 42-year-old American’s best finish since he tied for fourth at the 2010 Masters.

“It was great to be a part of it, to hear the roars and to have Tiger back in the mix,” he said. “For a while, I thought Tiger was going to win, so my mindset was ‘Go and spoil the party’.

“But this is not the Tiger that Phil [Mickelson] and Ernie [Els] had to deal with. I wouldn’t say we’re worried about him, but he’s one of those guys that’s always in with a shot.”

Asked if he appreciated the sight of Woods being back in the lead, Mcilroy was almost incredulous. “No, not at all,” he laughed. “Maybe if I was at home with a broken ankle, like a few years ago, it might have been cool, but when you’re the one trying to beat him, no, there’s no appreciation there.

“Tiger does things that maybe he didn’t do 10, 15 years ago, but it’s still great to have him back. It’s great for golf.”

Those same words could be said for Mcilroy. Welcome back slugger.