Rory McIlroy: I should have closed it out

bruced
'Rory is tough to watch at the moment'

Rory McIlroy admitted he was left bitterly disappointed by his runner-up finish at the BMW PGA Championship on Sunday.

Having led by as many as three strokes after the second round, McIlroy could only manage rounds of 71 and 70 at Wentworth on the weekend, which was never going to be enough to stop Francesco Molinari’s charge to victory.

A four-shot swing midway through the final round after Molinari made several birdies and McIlroy made back-to-back bogeys proved too much to overcome, despite a strong finish from the four-time major champion.

After successive birdies at 17 and 18, McIlroy signed for a two-under-par 70 that saw him finish two shots behind the champion.

“I’m just disappointed I didn’t play better over the weekend,” McIlroy said. “I was in a great position after two days and struggled yesterday and sort struggled today again, as well. I just couldn’t get it going. I let Francesco get a few shots ahead of me, and I couldn’t claw that back.

“I played some good golf coming down the back nine, hit some better shots, but I need to work on a few things going forward.”

While McIlroy did return to the winner’s circle after 18 months at the Arnold Palmer Invitational earlier this year, he’s also had his fair share of misses after finding himself in contention – most notably at the Masters.

“I get a bit down on myself because my expectations are high, and with a 36-hole lead, I should have closed it out this week,” McIlroy said. “But that’s not taking anything away from Francesco. He played a great weekend and bogey-free around here is some playing. He deserved the win, I need to do a little more work, and I’m looking to forward to getting right back at it at Memorial next week.”