Rory McIlroy's frustrations at breaking point sum up year for PGA Tour star
Rory McIlroy's 2024 has seen the world No. 3's frustrations grow, from major heartbreak to missing out on an Olympic medal, and his drivers are taking the brunt of it
Rory McIlroy cut a frustrated figure at the BMW Championship at the weekend as the Northern Irishman snapped his driver in his final round - and in so many ways it summed up his year on the tour.
If McIlroy furiously throwing his driver into the nearby water after hitting his tee shot wide right on the 17th on Friday wasn't bad enough, the four-time major winner appeared to snap his driver in frustration when bending down to pick up his tee on Sunday. It came after McIlroy fired off a wayward shot at the par four with his ball coming to rest on the bank just above a creek.
McIlroy did not attempt to replace the driver. Rule 4.1a(2) states: “If a conforming club is damaged during a round or while play is stopped under Rule 5.7a, except in cases of abuse, the player may repair it or replace it with another club."
Incredibly, though, the 35-year-old made the most of being down a club and standing barefoot in the creek, as he miraculously as he fired his approach shot into the green and saved par. However, It wasn't enough to drag him back into contention as he reached the turn at one-over - 14 shots off the lead.
U.S. Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley went on to win the BMW Championship as McIlroy's frustrations in 2024 continued. McIlroy came astonishingly close to winning his fifth golf major at the U.S. Open, only to miss two putts in the closing stages, handing the victory to Bryson DeChambeau.
He also failed to make the final cut at The Open, and finished fifth, outside of the medals, at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, while representing Ireland. It's been a decade since the world No. 3 has won a major and he had hoped that Olympic gold would soothe his pain.
“It would be the achievement of my year,” McIlroy said ahead of the Games. “It’s well documented that I haven’t won one of the Big Four in 10 years. It would probably be one, if not the biggest in my career for the last decade.”
"I’ve been asked this question a lot, where would an Olympic Medal sit in sort of the hierarchy of my career achievements and it’s something I probably won’t be able to answer until when everything is said and done," he added.
"I think as golf is in the Olympics for a longer period of time, it will become bigger. We have our four events a year that are the gold standard, but in time, this is going to be right up there amongst that.”
McIlroy will get another should in four years' time as the Olympics heads to America, the country of his residence. However, he'll be competing on the West Coast, and not on the East, where he resides in Florida.
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