US Open champion Bryson DeChambeau revealed Rory McIlroy has lastly congratulated him on his Pinehurst victory after the heartbroken Northern Eire star left the course with out chatting with the American.
Briefly two pictures forward on the again 9 within the ultimate spherical at Pinehurst in June, McIlroy bogeyed three of the final 4 holes to complete a shot behind DeChambeau.
Whereas McIlroy missed brief putts on the sixteenth and 18th, DeChambeau conjured a superb par save from a bunker on the final gap.
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McIlroy, who has not received a serious since 2014, left the course moments later with out congratulating DeChambeau or chatting with the media.
However 5 weeks on from the US Open, McIlroy crossed paths with DeChambeau for the primary time as he arrived at Royal Troon for the 152nd British Open, which begins on Thursday.
“I mentioned hiya to him and we talked,” DeChambeau mentioned. “He mentioned congrats so every thing’s nice there.
“He’s a fierce competitor. I do know he’s going to provide the followers as a lot as he can this week. I’m going to be doing the identical.
“We’re going to be competing. Hopefully will probably be one other good battle.”
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After three weeks off, McIlroy returned to motion with a tie for fourth place in final week’s Scottish Open and has been eager to reframe what occurred at Pinehurst in a constructive mild.
The world quantity two identified that, between 2015 and 2020, he had few real probabilities to win a fifth main, regardless of racking up quite a few high 10s.
That modified within the 2022 British Open at St Andrews when he shared the 54-hole lead and coated his first 10 holes of spherical 4 in two underneath par earlier than the birdies dried up and he was overhauled by Cameron Smith’s 64.
In final 12 months’s US Open, McIlroy birdied the primary gap through the ultimate spherical at Los Angeles Nation Membership to briefly maintain a share of the lead, however wouldn’t make one other and in the end completed one shot behind Wyndham Clark.
“I’d a lot quite have these shut calls. It implies that I’m getting nearer,” McIlroy mentioned.
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DeChambeau is the person in kind, ending joint sixth on the Masters and second on the PGA Championship earlier than successful the US Open for his second main title.
The 30-year-old, who first received the US Open in 2020, had his greatest British Open end two years in the past when he got here joint eighth.
“All of it relies upon if I’m hanging it nicely. I can are available in right here with probably the most confidence, clearly, off of a serious championship win,” he mentioned.
“I understand how to get the job finished. It’s only a matter of if I’m as constant as I used to be on the US Open and some different venues as nicely.
“If I can play the golf that I’ve been, I feel I’ll give myself an important likelihood.”