On a calm, overcast Sunday at Congressional Country Club, Rory McIlroy closed with a 69 to win the 2011 U.S. Open by eight strokes. He claimed his first major title and rewrote the championship's scoring record.
Eight clear, never a doubt
McIlroy had already built an overnight lead twice as large as the one he carried into the final round at Augusta two months earlier. With the 7,574-yard Blue Course softened and vulnerable, Martin Kaymer remarked, "It's not really a U.S. Open golf course, to be honest," and the 22-year-old from Holywood seized every opening.
He struck his approach on the first hole out of a divot to six feet for birdie, then tapped in another on the fourth to reach 16 under par. He gave back his first stroke to par only at the 12th, one of just four bogeys all week.
A total four men owned
His 268 — rounds of 65, 66, 68 and 69 — shattered the 72-hole U.S. Open record of 272, a mark held jointly by Jack Nicklaus, Lee Janzen, Tiger Woods and Jim Furyk. By Sunday evening McIlroy had set eleven tournament records, and his 16-under total stood four strokes clear of the previous low.
Jason Day finished second, eight shots adrift. The last ten U.S. Open champions combined were only 14 under par across their winning weeks.
McIlroy became the third man in history to post four U.S. Open rounds in the 60s, joining Lee Trevino and Lee Janzen. At 22 years, one month and 15 days, he was the youngest major champion since Tiger Woods and the youngest U.S. Open victor since Bobby Jones in 1923.
"I couldn't ask for much more, and I'm just so happy to be holding this trophy," McIlroy told reporters afterwards. The triumph arrived just ten weeks after a four-shot final-round collapse at the Masters, and it began a major haul that would carry him from this record-breaking Sunday to a career Grand Slam completed fourteen years later.