Rory McIlroy describes this year’s PGA Championship as ‘one that got away’

Rory McIlroy has described this year’s PGA Championship as ‘one that got away’ as he seeks to end his eight-year wait to win another major.

The Northern Irishman was leading the field at Southern Hills last week after the first round with a five-under-par 65.

However, a topsy-turvy performance over the next three days saw McIlroy fall out of contention before eventually finishing in tied-eighth place.

The 33-year-old has not won a major since 2014 and did not speak to reporters after his third and fourth round at Southern Hills last week.

In an interview with the Irish Independent, he said: ‘Regrets? Yeah I regret I didn’t take advantage of the benign conditions on Friday afternoon.

‘I regret the big numbers I made on the par threes on Saturday. The fact that I just needed to play the last 13 holes in one-under par to make a play-off on Sunday, and I didn’t.

‘So, yeah, I definitely feel like it was one that got away. But, again, I have to take the positives and the fact that eighth place in a major is absolutely the worst I feel I could’ve finished last week.

‘That’s a completely different story to where I was the last couple of years. The first two majors of last year, I missed the cut at Augusta and I finished like 50th at the PGA.’

Since winning the PGA Championship in 2014, McIlroy has tested out several new coaches with a view to getting back to winning golf’s premier events.

However, the changes have yet to have the desired outcome, with a host of young Americans having taken over his mantle in recent years.

The next chance of major success is at the US Open in June before the Open Championship at St Andrews in July.

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