Rory McIlroy's collapse at US Open is unwelcome golf heritage

We have no Rory McIlroy quotes to furnish you with today. The World No 2 hadn't the stomach to stick around for the autopsy. It was just too grizzly.

The footage of McIlroy watching DeChambeau's US Open winning putt in the scorer's booth will soon replace Ralph Wiggum in the cinema as the go-to heartbreak meme.

This was different to the 2022 Open Championship loss in St Andrew's, when nothing fell on Sunday and he was scuppered by the languid putting genius of Cameron Smith. And it was certainly different to last year's US Open runner-up finish, when again no putts dropped and he never managed to draw level with eventual winner Wyndham Clark, despite several chances.

On Sunday, everything was going right until it wasn't. For the first 14 holes, he was putting like a dream, long birdie putts pouring into the cup, knee-knocking short ones for par all being nailed. His driving was flawless, the shot tracer invariably sketching out a gentle right-to-left arc down each fairway. His chief rival was spending the final round rooting around in the unkempt areas, and was pushing almost every drive right.

With a one-stroke lead, McIlroy took too much club to the short 15th, the ball chasing through the back and from there on, it was all a struggle. His face looked increasingly haggard and stressed, his body language jumpy. The burden of 10 years without a major weighing on him. It all mattered too much.

When McIlroy settled over the par putt on 18th and was aiming outside the cup, many hearts sank back home. In light of the shocking - and considerably easier - missed putt on 16, it felt like no better than a 50:50 shot at that stage. A good number will surely have been unable to watch and the first they'll have heard that the ball had