Sir Nick Faldo offers brutal Rory McIlroy take after US Open choke
Six-time major champion Sir Nick Faldo has criticised Rory McIlroy's decision making after he collapsed at the 2024 US Open.
Sir Nick Faldo was baffled by the decisions Rory McIlroy made towards the end of the 2024 US Open.
Faldo was commentating for Sky Sports as the drama unfolded.
McIlroy, for the most part, played like a man possessed at Pinehurst No.2 on Sunday afternoon.
But then he unravelled in devastating fashion.
McIlroy was four-under for his round and eight-under overall when he stepped up to the tee box at the par-3 15th.
He had already made bogey on the hole twice earlier in the week and elected to hit a 7-iron.
McIlroy's golf ball did not land softly and ended up in an horrific lie long of the green.
He would go on to make a bogey but Faldo could not fathom why he didn't attempt to hit a towering iron shot into the heart of the green.
"Seemed like a lotta club to me," Sky Sports' Wayne Riley offered.
"Look at that for a lie," Faldo said. "Long is not good."
McIlroy thought he did what he needed to do at the next, finding the fairway and holding the green with his approach.
Two-putt par, right?
But he three-putted and then panic appeared to set in.
He showed guts to save his three at the par-3 17th after pulling his tee shot left.
But Faldo then lost it when footage cut to McIlroy preparing to hit his final tee shot with a driver in hand.
A confused Faldo then said: "Why is he hitting this right now?"
Riley, clearly baffled as well, offered: "I don't know! I don't know! He's aiming it down the left side trying to slide it off the breeze."
McIlroy found the native area.
Faldo then blasted: "That's dangerous. Yesterday he hit 3-wood and he had 123 yards!
"Even if [he gives himself] a 150-yard shot, so what?!"
McIlroy could not find the green with his approach but pitched close.
Then he missed a putt inside four feet for the second time in four holes.
Faldo summed it up later in the broadcast: "That's going to haunt Rory for the rest of his life, those two misses."
McIlroy chose not to speak to the media after Bryson DeChambeau's 72-hole heroics.
That reportedly surprised DeChambeau, but he still had nothing but positives to say about the Northern Irishman in his winner's news conference.
"I woudn't wish that on anybody," DeChambeau said.
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