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.
