TROON, Scotland In the aftermath of his crushing loss in the U.S. Open, Rory McIlroy received messages of support from Michael Jordan and Rafael Nadal.
Tiger Woods chimed in, too.
Woods revealed Tuesday that he texted McIlroy about a week after McIlroy threw away a two-shot lead with five holes to play at Pinehurst. Most devastating to McIlroy was his 2-foot lip-out on the 16th hole, followed by a 4-foot miss on the final green that left him one shot shy of Bryson DeChambeau.
I just sent him a nice text, Woods said, adding that he told him: I know this is a difficult moment. Weve all been there as champions. We all lose. Unfortunately, it just happened, and the raw emotion of it, its still there, and its going to be there for, Im sure, some time. The faster hes able to get back on the horse and get back in contention, like he did last week, the better it is for him.
McIlroy, in his first start since Pinehurst, tied for fourth at the Scottish Open. Earlier that week, McIlroy told reporters that he began feeling uncomfortable over his short par putt on 16, saying that he was perhaps too aware of DeChambeaus looming position.
Woods, too, said that hed been in that spot before with the tournament on the line.
Nervous, shaky, uncomfortable yeah, all of it, Woods said. Thats why you love it. Thats why we practice, to build up ourselves in that one uncomfortable situation and bury it.
Handling that situation, Woods said, comes from years, if not decades, of practice.
I work hard at it, and Ive done it my entire life, he said. Ive worked hard to put myself there.
Even if the circumstances were different, Woods said the most difficult loss of his career came at the 2009 PGA Championship. It remains the one and only time that he lost a major when holding the 54-hole lead, and he said it took a while for him to get over the sting of the defeat because of how many careless mistakes he made in the middle of the final round. At the height of his powers, Woods shot 75 that day at Hazeltine to lose by three to Y.E. Yang in what was one of the biggest upsets in the games history.
You cant afford to make the mistakes that I made and expect to win tournaments, Woods said. I know better than that.
A month later, McIlroy now does too, no doubt.