Rory McIlroy's US Open choke was like watching a car crash. But will it define him forever? Not a chance, writes OLIVER HOLT

READ MORE: McIlroy rushes out of Pinehurst straight after US Open heartache

In some of the many vivid and keenly observed appraisals of Rory McIlroy's horrible collapse in the last few holes of the US Open on Sunday, it was said and written that the way he handed victory to Bryson DeChambeau at Pinehurst would define him for ever.

I don't agree with that. Experience teaches you that extraordinary sportsmen are capable of extraordinary things. Write them off and you've got an even chance of looking stupid some time reasonably soon. Trust me — I've been there and done it. More than once.

Sometimes, a sportsman like McIlroy, who is, after all, already one of the greatest golfers Europe has ever produced, reaches deep down into his greatness to rediscover his extraordinariness, just when everyone is saying it has gone for good.

So, yes, he choked on Sunday, no question about that. I've watched that putt on the 16th, the one that was 2ft 6ins from the hole, over and over again, the way it slurps round the lip of the cup like a loose tongue and then wriggles out.

It's like watching a car crash. It's like being a rubbernecker as you drive past the wreckage. It's a harbinger of what's to come. It is a foretelling of the second miss on the 18th, the one that cost McIlroy at least a play-off as he hunted his first major triumph for a decade.

Rory McIlroy suffered more major heartbreak at the end of a dramatic US Open on Sunday

The Northern Irishman missed two short putts on the final three holes at Pinehurst

But define him for ever? Really? Maybe if he retires tomorrow and lives out the rest of his days as a recluse in a fisherman's cottage in Donegal, it will define him for ever. Otherwise, the way McIlroy handed victory to DeChambeau will define him until he tees off at the Open at Royal Troon almost exactly one month from today.

Read More

The astonishing stat that shows how painful Rory McIlroy's US Open collapse was

When Goran Ivanisevic lost his third straight Wimbledon men's singles final to Pete Sampras in 1998, after earlier defeats by Sampras and Andre Agassi, people said that loss would define him, too.

And it did. Until he produced one of the greatest Wimbledon victories of all-time in beating Pat Rafter over five sets on People's Monday three years later.

So McIlroy will get his first shot at redemption in Scotland next month. And then next April, when he tees off on the plateau in front of the clubhouse and the old oak tree at Augusta, trying to win the Masters and get another chance to write his legacy.

When he plays his next US Open, at Oakmont Country Club in Pennsylvania a year from now, he will get another shot. And if he wins one of them, any of them, it is that win that will define him, because it will represent the way he overcame the demons that overran him at Pinehurst.

Imagine if he wins the Masters now and completes his career Grand Slam. Imagine if he wins the US Open after what happened on Sunday. Imagine how much more it will mean and what it will say about him.

McIlroy's collapse left Bryson DeChambeau (pictured) on hand to win his second US Open

[video_shortcode_video_html_5 src="https://videos.dailymail.co.uk/video/mol/2024/06/17/6046119612698047077/1024x576_MP4_6046119612698047077.mp4" itemprop="image" content="https://videos.dailymail.co.uk/video/mol/2024/06/17/6046119612698047077/1024x576_MP4_6046119612698047077.mp4" data-src="https://videos.dailymail.co.uk/video/mol/2024/06/17/6046119612698047077/1024x576_MP4_6046119612698047077.mp4"]

There are those who feel, particularly after Sunday, that he hasn't got it in him. I'm not one of them. Some clearly believe that he does not have the emotional strength to get the job done in a major any more.

US television analyst and former player Brandel Chamblee made an interesting point after the tournament. 'Golf's only difficult when you care,' he said. And it is clear McIlroy wants to win another major more than anything. Our view of him has become more nuanced as he, and we, have got older and that has never been more true than now.

That seems like a good thing. Sportsmen and women are more interesting when they have a hinterland. They are more relatable when they are flawed, like the rest of us.

McIlroy is compulsive and complex. His on-off divorce hints at that. His attitude towards the Saudi breakaway LIV Golf series appears to have softened considerably. It has become clear that he has made plenty of enemies within the game. Some regard his public utterances with a degree of scepticism. All of which is another way of saying that McIlroy is a normal person.

He has an abnormal talent, but talent does not insulate anyone from the stresses and strains of life. In many ways, as golf has discovered so painfully in recent weeks, a life in the spotlight can accentuate those strains.

Despite the monumental collapse, this campaign in the US Open will not define McIlroy

Imagine the stress McIlroy must have been under in recent weeks because of the strains in his personal life.

Yet somehow he went out at Pinehurst and managed to shut all that out and play one of the best majors of his life.

It is hard to overstate how impressive that was. It is hard to comprehend the kind of mental strength it must have taken to play so brilliantly.

Yet we are told those two missed putts on the 16th and 18th will define him for ever. No chance.

McIlroy is not perfect. He's human. He's fallible.

But he is one of those rare people who makes sport come alive when he stands over a ball. He makes golf come alive more than any other player on the tour.

When he wins his next major, that will be his epitaph. That will define him, not a couple of missed putts on Pinehurst No 2.

Guehi gives us one less thing to fret about 

England may not have set the European Championship on fire in their scratchy 1-0 win over Serbia in Gelsenkirchen on Sunday evening but, beyond the stellar performance of Jude Bellingham, there was one reason, at least, for quiet satisfaction in the England camp. The build-up to the game had been full of fretting about England's defence and, in particular, how the Serbs would target Marc Guehi.

As it happened, far from being a weak link, Guehi was England's outstanding performer at the back. When the team needed him, he stood up. If anything, he helped John Stones through the match rather than the other way around. He was more responsible than anyone for England's clean sheet.

Maybe we don't need to fret about the defence quite as much any more.

Marc Guehi's performance at the heart of England's defence will help calm some nerves

Clarke fronted up... now his players should 

In the aftermath of Scotland's 5-1 humbling by Germany in Munich on Friday, Steve Clarke took his place on the stage for the post-match press conference. You find out a few things about managers in moments like that.

Clarke is rarely cheery and he did not change that habit. But he answered every question. And when UEFA's moderator tried to spare him further interrogation, Clarke noticed that a couple of Scottish journalists had not had a chance to speak and insisted on staying to answer their questions, too.

He did not look a man derailed by what had happened. The opposite, actually. If his players saw it, they would have seen a man confident that he, and they, could put things right.

Steve Clarke did not shy away from the pressing questions over Scotland's dismal showing