McIlroy throws a stick at The Open

The first two rounds of the tournament, McIlroy all 70 strokes on Royal St. George’s par70 and 11 strokes from the top. On the third day, McIlroy flourished in his quest to improve his position – scoring five birdies and one bogey and scoring round 4 on nine holes. In the second half of the course, the Northern Ireland golfer with four majors lost fire suddenly. He struggled to keep par 10, bogey 11 because before he missed the bunker and failed to put away 1.2 meters, then par and bogey again.

On the 14th hole, McIlroy hit with a 2 iron. After the shot, he went from boredom to “on fire”. When the ball headed to the rough area from the buffalo tail grass to half the shin, McIlroy still held the stick in his left hand and signaled “the ball is lost” to the audience. After giving a signal, he brought the stick to his shoulder, pointed the handle towards the sky as if he was about to launch a Tomahawk missile, then immediately switched to a knife throw and threw it in the direction of the fairway.

McIlroy throws a baton in the third round of The Open

“Oh, it wasn’t a throw. Just a light toss,” McIlroy said when asked about his temper tantrum on the 14th hole. “I’m not as mad as Tyrrell Hatton was the other day,” McIlroy defended, comparing his reaction to his own. Hatton broke his wedge on the 18th fairway in the second round.

McIlroy has thrown his bat several times, most famously sending his 3 iron into the lake during the 2015 WGC-Cadillac Championship. This time, he throws forward, as famed coach Butch Harmon recently instructed via Twitter. by LPGA Tour player Danielle Kang. In it, Harmon emphasized “Don’t throw the stick back or to the side, then you have to go and pick it up. Always throw it in the direction you go”.

Yesterday, McIlroy broke down but later kept par 14. From there to the end of the course, he added a bogey and closed the round of 69, standing at T41 with a -1 point after 54 holes. At this time, he ran out of opportunities to compete for the championship because he was 11 strokes behind Louis Oosthuizen at the top of the table. And so, McIlroy has to wait until April 2022 to have the opportunity to end his thirst for a major since 2014, after holding the PGA Championship and The Open. With these two titles, McIlroy won a total of four majors, but was unable to reach the grand slam milestone due to a lack of Masters.

Quoc Huy