He did not blow it, he did not bottle it, he did not choke, he did not fold under the pressure of one of the greatest final rounds in Open history unfolding ahead of him.
In clubhouse parlance, Rory McIlroy simply could not buy a putt while the cup looked like a manhole to the narrowing eyes of Cameron Smith. That is why Smith is the worthiest of Open champions, that is why McIlroy came third at the end of an afternoon that most thought would be a two-horse race.
If you are that way inclined, you can attribute his Championship-costing mediocrity on the greens down to the burden of expectation weighing heavily on the shoulders of a great player whose eight-year stretch without a Major is a slight against his incredible talent. But in reality, his putter was stone-cold, that can happen. Perhaps it happens too often to McIlroy, which is one of the reasons the last of his four Major wins came back in 2014.
But that is about technique, not nerve. If his nerve had gone, how come McIlroy stood on the tee at the 17th - the notoriously difficult Road Hole - and pummelled a driver 340 yards down the middle of the fairway and then hit a towering iron shot onto a target not much bigger than a postage stamp?
But there were no prizes for guessing where his 18-foot birdie putt ended up - beside, rather than at the bottom, of the hole. He tapped in for par and then grimaced as the roar from the final-hole grandstands drifted down the fairway, telling him that Smith had birdied and the Championship was as good as up.
He needed an eagle at the last and did not even manage a birdie, meaning he finished behind Smith and also behind Cameron Young, who DID make an eagle at the last. Possibly the hardest person on McIlroy in the immediate aftermath of a fine Championship was McIlroy himself, saying he “didn’t do much wrong” but “he didn’t do much right either”.
By that, he meant he didn’t hit it close enough on a bunch of holes that had yielded to him in the first three rounds. Still, he hit every green in regulation, yet needed 36 putts.
But when he also talked about letting it “slip away”, it was an insight into how much this must have hurt McIlroy. And it will hurt, make no mistake. It will hurt, big-time.
This has been a year when McIlroy has finished in the top ten in every Major yet it will only be remembered as another year when McIlroy FAILED to win a Major. That is why there was a rueful, glazed look on his face as he applauded the crowd at the end of his bogey-free round.
When, and if, he analyses that round, he might wonder if he had underestimated the threat that might come from the Camerons, who started the day four behind. McIlroy had the measure of Viktor Hovland - who had started level with the Northern Irishman - after ten holes, but maybe did not anticipate the astonishing charge ahead of him.
As Smith birdied five on the spin, McIlroy needed to respond but could not, and the wait went on. But he did not blow it, he did not bottle it, he did not choke.
When McIlroy says he will “have other chances to win the Open Championship and other chances to win majors”, he is right. And, sooner rather than later, he will take one.
