Rory McIlroy suffered more major disappointment on Sunday as he came up just short at the US Open in Los Angeles.
The Holywood man held a share of the lead when he two-putted the par-five opening hole of Sunday’s final round of the 123rd edition of the tournament, but that would prove his only birdie of a disappointing closing 70.
Wyndham Clark’s own 70 was enough to give the 29-year-old American his first major title at Los Angeles Country Club, while McIlroy has now recorded 19 top-10 finishes since winning his fourth in the 2014 US PGA.
READ MORE: Rory McIlroy insists latest major disappointment will make elusive fifth triumph "really sweet"
However, McIlroy still picked up a massive cheque for his efforts.
The 34-year-old took home almost €2million in prize money, while Clark pocketed nearly €3.3million for winning the tournament.
Shane Lowry and Padraig Harrington finished further down the leaderboard, but still took home around €183,000 each.
Speaking after the tournament, McIlroy said: "When I do finally win this next major it’s going to be really, really sweet.
“I would go through 100 Sundays like this to get my hands on another major championship.”
McIlroy conceded his underwhelming final round had echoes of last year’s Open Championship, when he held a share of the lead, carded two birdies in a closing 70 and was overhauled by Cameron Smith’s brilliant 64.
“The last real two chances I’ve had at majors I feel like have been pretty similar performances, like St Andrews last year and then here,” the world number three added.
“Not doing a lot wrong, but I didn’t make a birdie since the first hole today. Overall when you’re in contention going into the final round of a US Open, I played the way I wanted to play.
“There was just a couple of shots, two or three shots over the course of the round that I’d like to have back.”
US Open prize money
1st (Winner): $3,600,000 -- Wyndham Clark
2nd: $2,160,000 -- Rory McIlroy
3rd: $1,413,430 -- Scottie Scheffler
4th: $990,867 -- Cameron Smith
5th: Tommy Fleetwood, Min Woo Lee, Rickie Fowler ($738,934 each)
8th: Tom Kim, Harris English ($562,808 each)
10th: Austin Eckroat, Jon Rahm, Dustin Johnson, Xander Schauffele ($435,018 each)
14th: Russell Henley, Collin Morikawa, Patrick Cantlay ($332,343 each)
17th: Brooks Koepka, Matt Fitzpatrick ($284,167 each)
19th: $258,662 -- Viktor Hovland
20th: Jordan Smith, Nick Hardy, Denny McCarthy, Keith Mitchell, Shane Lowry, Bryson DeChambeau, Ryutaro Nagano ($200,152 each)
27th: Sahith Theegala, Sergio Garcia, Justin Suh, Tyrrell Hatton, Padraig Harrington ($199,805 each)
32nd: Patrick Rodgers, Dylan Wu, Cameron Young, Sam Burns, Joaquin Niemann, Tony Finau, Hideki Matsuyama ($108,001 each)
39th: David Puig, Si Woo Kim, Eric Cole ($85,441 each)
43rd: Sam Bennett, Sam Stevens, Andrew Putnam, Ryan Fox, Billy Horschel, Bryan Harman ($66,532 each)
49th: Mackenzie Hughes, Sebastian Munoz, Charley Hoffman, Kevin Streelman, Gary Woodland ($49,224 each)
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