Northern Ireland native Rory McIlroy hit an 8-foot birdie at Congressional Country Club’s opening hole. Three holes later, another from 3 feet away. He would allow no one to come close to beating him. Instead, McIlroy brought down the curtain on one of the most dominant performances in major-championship annals.
A 2-under-par 69 turned Sunday’s final round of the U.S. Open into a coronation march, smashing the Open scoring record by four strokes as the 22-year-old pro left his nearest foe eight shots in his wake.
“To win the U.S. Open in a bit of style is always nice,” said McIlroy, the fourth-youngest winner in U.S. Open history.
McIlroy finished at 16-under 268, blitzing the previous Open record of 272 set by Jack Nicklaus in 1980 and later matched by Lee Janzen (1993), Tiger Woods (2000) and Jim Furyk (2003).
McIlroy also rewrote the Open’s scoring record after two rounds (131) and again after three (199) — among 11 new standards bearing his name and another he shares. In addition, he joined Lee Trevino (1968) and Janzen (1993) as the only men to to break 70 in all four Open rounds.
“It’s not amazing that he’s going to win a major,” three-time major champion Padraig Harrington said as McIlroy played his final holes. “But it’s amazing how comfortably he’s lapping the field.”
Though McIlroy couldn’t approach Woods’ record winning margin of 15 shots when he scorched Pebble Beach, it goes down as No. 4 on the list. Willie Smith was 11 up on the field in 1899; James Barnes won by nine in 1921.
“Once he started, we were all playing for second,” Lee Westwood said. “It’s tough to win a major, and it’s probably even tougher to win it like that.”