After Travelers birdiefest, Rory McIlroy clearly misses LACC

Rory McIlroy birdied five of his first seven holes Sunday at TPC River Highlands, eventually signed for a 6-under 64 to finish at 18 under for the week, and he didn’t come close to winning.

“I knew I was never going to win with the way Keegan was playing,” McIlroy said after his round and before he ended up T-7, five shots back of Bradley, who shot 23 under to win the Travelers Championship by three.

Zac Blair and Brian Harman tied for second at 20 under, and McIlroy was one of 44 players to shoot under par at this post-U.S. Open designated event, which hasn’t seen a winner post anything in single digits since 1993.

“I don’t particularly like when a tournament is like this,” McIlroy said. “Unfortunately, technology has passed this course by, right? It sort of has made it obsolete, especially as soft as it has been with a little bit of rain that we had. So, again, like the conversations going back to, you know, limiting the golf ball and stuff like that, when we come to courses like this, they just don’t present the challenge that they used to.”

McIlroy’s comments come amid great debate regarding a potential rollback of the golf ball by the USGA and after a major week filled with social-media uproar at Los Angeles Country Club, which was criticized for playing too easy. Defenders of the classic George C. Thomas layout would point out at week’s end, though, that the 36-hole and 72-hole leads were both 10 under, with Wyndham Clark eventually finishing seven shots clear of T-10 as greens firmed up despite early cloud cover and little wind all week.

Full-field scores from Travelers Championship

The weather this week in Cromwell, Connecticut, was far from firm with recent storms and warm temperatures.

“Yeah, you can grow the rough up and hope you get some firm conditions so it gets tricky,” McIlroy added. “I think the blueprint for a really good golf course isn’t growing the rough up and making the fairways tight. That bunches everyone together. The blueprint is something like LACC, where you have wide targets, but if you miss it’s penal. This isn’t that sort of golf course. It’s not that sort of layout. It doesn’t have the land to do that.

“So, you know, unfortunately when you get soft conditions like this and you’ve got the best players in the world, this is what’s going to happen.”