After Rory McIlroy won The Masters to finally complete the career Grand Slam, he was immediately pegged as the favorite to win the 2025 U.S. Open.
That made a ton of sense, right?
Oakmont Country Club is a massive ballpark that demands long, accurate play off the tee. And with McIlroy being a fantastic U.S. Open performer in recent years with six straight top-10 finishes, he could finally play pressure-free golf now with the Augusta National monkey off his back.
Fast forward to today, and it's hard to trust McIlroy to even make the cut this week.
During his U.S. Open introductory press conference on Tuesday (thanks for showing up to this one, by the way), Rory detailed a rather concerning practice round he played at Oakmont a week ago. Apparently, the Northern Irishman was 13-over through 16 holes before he salvaged an 11-over 81 with two birdies to close out the round.
“Last Monday felt impossible," McIlroy told reporters. "I birdied the last two holes for 81. It felt pretty good. It didn’t feel like I played that bad."
If McIlroy isn't feeling terrible about an 81 as the No. 2 player in the world, even on a golf course as challenging as Oakmont, what does that say about his confidence heading into the third major of 2025?
To be fair, he did say the course was playing extremely difficult due to the pin locations and lightning-fast greens, but how is that going to be any different than the tournament? If anything, Oakmont and the USGA are only going to speed the greens up even more as the week progresses.
"This morning it was a little softer," McIlroy continued. "The pins aren’t going to be on three or four percent slopes all the time. If you put it in the fairway, it’s certainly playable.
"But then you just have to think about leaving your ball below the hole and just trying to make as many pars as you can. You get yourself in the way of a few birdies, that’s a bonus."
McIlroy's disastrous practice round isn't the only red flag following him around the grounds of Oakmont this week. At the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow, a course McIlroy has dominated during his career, he shot three over-par rounds and finished in a tie for 47th.
He also had his worst off-the-tee week of the season after his regular driver was deemed nonconforming ahead of the tournament.
Last week, McIlroy shot 71-78 at the RBC Canadian Open to miss the cut by a whopping 12 shots. He ended up beating only four players in the 156-man field (there were three withdrawals), which is unheard of for a player of his skill level.
Rory lost strokes in all four major categories at TPC Toronto, and his -2.87 true strokes gained on approach marked the worst week of his PGA Tour career.
Aside from his actual play on the course, McIlroy's mindset might not be where it needs to be heading into the U.S. Open. Everyone thought his Masters triumph would free him up to play the best golf of his career down the stretch of 2025, but it could be having the opposite effect.
Now that the career Grand Slam is in his pocket, McIlroy has been content with enjoying his success and not worrying about his results since.
"I worked incredibly hard on my game from October last year all the way up until April this year," McIlroy said Tuesday. "It was nice to sort of see the fruits of my labor come to fruition and have everything happen.
"You have to enjoy that. You have to enjoy what you've just accomplished. I certainly feel like I'm still doing that, and I will continue to do that. At some point, you have to realize that there's a little bit more golf left to play this season. ...I think chasing a certain goal for the better part of a decade and a half, I think I'm allowed a little bit of time to relax a little bit. But here at Oakmont, I certainly can't relax this week."
You got that right, Rory.