US Open 2023: Rory McIlroy frustrates as Wyndham Clark conquers typical test in LA

As he says, no one wants Rory McIlroy to win a major more than the man himself. And no one will be feeling a greater sense of loss than him in the wake of his one-shot US Open defeat by Wyndham Clark.

Another one slips by for the Northern Irishman. He is getting closer, but there is no escaping the fact that last Sunday was a glorious chance to add a fifth major and end a nine-year barren run in the game's biggest tournaments.

Winning is hard. Winning majors is even harder, even when a player is in such control of his long game on a muscular championship layout such as the Los Angeles Country Club.

From tee to green McIlroy did very little wrong, hitting fairways and greens, but just as was the case at St Andrews last year his putter was stone cold.

Then it was Cameron Smith who romped past him to claim The Open, this time it was Clark who profited. Huge credit should be heaped on both champions - they were deserving winners but that will be of little consolation to McIlroy.

It will hurt even more after Sunday's defeat because on two par-fives he made crucial errors that, in the final analysis, contributed massively to his ongoing major frustration.

The world number three's birdie attempt from four feet on the eighth did not touch the hole - a horrible hoick left just at a time when he could have applied serious pressure on someone playing only his seventh major.

Had that dropped, McIlroy's relatively short birdie attempt at the next might have had a more successful outcome. Even worse was the bogey at the long 14th, where he had recovered from an errant tee shot to leave a basic wedge approach.

Instead of giving himself a look at birdie, he had to chip from shaggy rough surrounding a greenside bunker after embedding his third shot in the face of the hazard. It was a difficult up and down and it proved too tricky.

For a man of his powers, par-fives should be fertile territory, but when he most needed to capitalise he failed. Ifs, buts and fine margins and all that - how he would love not to have to be making such empty reflections.

But that's the story with Rory all too frequently these days. A player capable of winning everything else other than the competitions that mean most and yet putting himself in the mix at those events more than any other player in the game.

"My last seven major championships I've finished in the top-10 six times," McIlroy reflected. "In those I've had two great chances and it hasn't quite happened for me.

"But every time these tournaments come up, I seem to be able to find a good enough game to contend and I've just got to keep putting myself in these positions."

The next opportunity will come in a month at The Open at Royal Liverpool where he won when it was last staged there in 2014. Great memories of that week will do battle with multiple subsequent mental scars before determining McIlroy's mindset this time.

And with each opportunity that slips from his grasp, the harder it becomes the next time he is in contention, especially given the current strength in depth at the top of the world game.

Clark has muscled his way into that conversation. Hollywood loves to uncover new stars and here in LaLa land the 29-year-old from Denver rocketed from being a 125-1 outsider to golf's top table, seemingly, in the blink of an eye.

Yes, he won at Quail Hollow last month but few outside the player himself - who jumps to 13th from 32nd in the world rankings - regarded him as a genuine threat in the build-up to the US Open. "I feel like I belong on this stage," he said standing next to the precious silver trophy.

"And even two, three years ago when people didn't know who I was, I felt like I could still play and compete against the best players in the world. I felt like I've shown that this year.

"I've come up close, and obviously everyone sees the person that hoists the trophy, but I've been trending in the right direction for a long time now. I've made a lot of cuts.

"I've had a handful of top 10s and top 20s, and I feel like I've been on a great trajectory to get to this place.

"Obviously it's gone faster than I thought as far as just starting to do some stuff mentally that I've never done before, but I feel like I'm one of the best players in the world. Obviously this just shows what I believe can happen."

Clark would seem nailed on for a Ryder Cup debut for the United States in September and will be emboldened by the battling display that landed him this maiden major title.

It was a curious US Open played amid the ongoing tumult of the uncertainty generated by the proposed alliance between the PGA and DP World Tours and Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund.

Other corporate pressures invaded and diminished the spectacle with 14,000 of the daily 22,000 attendance here on hospitality deals rather than being ticketed golf fans. For large parts it lacked atmosphere despite the compelling competition.

Ridiculously late tee times on Saturday did not help, with Clark leading the complaints about having to complete his round in near darkness after waiting until 15:40 local time to start. And all to satisfy the demands of US television.

Never mind the rest of the world for America's national championship If the USGA want to grow the game - as they insist is their mission - perhaps they should look beyond servicing only those within the boundaries of their own country?

It is a shame because the golf was good. LACC was a new major venue and the course generated a rich variety of shots, the first 62s in US Open history and the championship's lowest average score of 71.76.

Yet for the leaders late on Saturday and Sunday the par-70 layout seemed every inch a typical US Open test - a classic physical and mental challenge.

It was one that the plucky Clark conquered and one to which a deeply frustrated McIlroy succumbed.