McIlroy destroyed his chance to win the 2023 Irish Open
When entering the match at The K Club par72 course, McIlroy was at -11, two strokes away from the top of the table. At the beginning of hole 7, par4, he stood T1 (-13). After hitting the middle of the fairway, the former world number one used a 9 iron for his second shot 158 yards from the flag. However, the ball went off the right side of the green, hit a rock, then bounced into a water hazard, resulting in a double bogey. After the misstep, McIlroy kept par for the entire stretch of holes 8-10.
At the par4 11th hole, he hit the lake again with his second shot, this time using a wedge 136 yards from the flag. However, the A-list star on the PGA Tour still limited the damage to bogey level with a tournament score of -10. In the next four holes, McIlroy earned a point, - thanks to a birdie on hole 13.
When he got down to the par5 16th hole in the fairway, McIlroy was -11 and the top spot at that time was -14, belonging to Vincent Norrman who finished the match with seven birdies and no bogeys. With the advantage of playing last and three holes remaining, McIlroy theoretically has the ability to catch Norrman.
However, at that tense moment, the owner of four majors continued to squander that opportunity. With 267 yards left to reach the target on the narrow green, McIlroy used the No. 3 wood in hopes of at least birdie. The hitting spot was 10 yards away from his memorial plaque. With the same club in the final round, he put the ball 12 meters from the hole to get a birdie and get to -10 and then scored an eagle on hole 18, thereby setting the championship mark - 12 at the 2016 Irish Open.
But this year, the second shot entered the creek.
Dropping the new ball closer to the green, McIlroy also couldn't get past the water hazard. Such consecutive failures caused him to record triple bogey on hole 16. In the remaining two holes, McIlroy par-birded, thus finishing T16 (-9). Hurly Long, playing with McIlroy, also birdied the target hole and went up to -13. At this time, Norrman's score of -14 became the winning mark, and Long finished second. Norman received $1.02 million, Long received $660,000, and McIlroy received $75,257.
Norrman, 25 years old, won two cups this year on the DP World Tour, including the recent Irish Open and the Barbasol Championship affiliated with the PGA Tour in July. In these two arenas, Long, 28 years old, has never finished first.
