Brandel Chamblee sharply criticizes Rory McIlroy's placing 'routine' after U.S. Open loss

There’s no method to get round it: Rory McIlroy blew an incredible chance at ending his decade-long main drought on Sunday on the 2024 U.S. Open. Two missed putts have been essentially the most obvious culprits, and NBC/Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee was fast in charge these failures in a pointy criticism shortly after the event ended.

With three bogeys over his closing 4 holes, McIlroy handed Bryson DeChambeau a second U.S. Open title that ought to have been his. At holes 16 and 18, Rory missed putts from 2-feet, 6-inches, and just below 4 toes, to place a traditionally surprising finish to an exciting closing spherical.

Chamblee joined Golf Channel’s “Live From” sales space not lengthy after DeChambeau’s closing putt dropped, and after giving Bryson his due, he turned to McIlroy’s collapse.

“We’ll be speaking concerning the misses by Rory McIlroy at 16 and 18 endlessly,” Chamblee started calmly, “We nonetheless discuss Hubert Inexperienced lacking that putt on the Masters. We nonetheless discuss Scott Hoch lacking that putt.”

However rapidly Chamblee grew to become animated when criticizing McIlroy’s placing “routine,” one he argued in the end led to McIlroy’s embarrassment on Pinehurst No.2’s greens Sunday night.

“You recognize I’m a giant fan of [sports psychologist] Bob Rotella… however I’m not a giant fan of routines. I don’t perceive it, I don’t get it,” Chamblee stated Sunday night. “I really feel like over the past 10 years Rory’s fallen in love with a routine. As if the routine in a placing stroke is extra vital than the stroke, extra vital to really feel snug.”

He used 18-time main winner Jack Nicklaus for instance to counter what he sees as McIlroy’s philosophy round placing routines.

“Jack Nicklaus didn’t have a routine… Jack would at all times say, ‘I wait till I get the precise image in my thoughts.’”, Chamblee continued, “That is my downside with routine. These are usually not routine. That putt he had on 18 will not be routine. It’s down the hill, it’s breaking to the precise. You wait till you get the precise image.”

Chamblee then went to the opposite golfer within the debate for Best of All Time, Tiger Woods, to show his level even additional.

“Return and watch Tiger Woods’ better-than-most putt. Watch him stalk that putt for 2 minutes. Watch him stand up over it and never take his regular routine. He made strokes with only one hand attempting to get the texture for it. By no means seen him do this earlier than. The place did that come from? He made it.”

The best way Chamblee sees it, McIlroy’s course of on Sunday at Pinehurst stands in stark distinction to the instance of Nicklaus and Woods.

“I’ve an issue with routines, and to me it’s like you concentrate on the routine. It’s extra vital that you simply make the putt and discover the precise image. And I believe that’s a part of the issue at 16 and 18 for Rory.”

It needs to be stated that McIlroy’s placing routine did assist him get into competition within the first place, look no additional than the a number of prolonged putts Rory did drain on Sunday.

However McIlroy didn’t meet with the media following the U.S. Open, so we’ll have to attend to listen to his aspect of the story. However we’d not have to attend lengthy. McIlroy is scheduled to play on this week’s Vacationers Championship, with a press convention tentatively deliberate for Wednesday.

Kevin Cunningham

Golf.com Editor

As managing producer for GOLF.com, Cunningham edits, writes and publishes tales on GOLF.com, and manages the model’s e-newsletters, which attain greater than 1.4 million subscribers every month. A former two-time intern, he additionally helps maintain GOLF.com buzzing outdoors the news-breaking tales and repair content material supplied by our reporters and writers, and works with the tech group within the improvement of latest merchandise and revolutionary methods to ship an interesting website to our viewers.