Rory McIlroy walks off the first hole with caddie, Harry Diamond during the third round of the 2025 U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club in Oakmont, Pa. on Saturday, June 14, 2025. (Jeff Haynes/USGA)

Rory McIlroy cut a frustrated and dispirited figure after a third-round 74 ended his US Open hopes and admitted his decision not to talk to the media for six successive major rounds was due to “frustration with you guys.”

The Co Down man has spoken at length about his struggles to motivate himself after achieving his life’s goal by winning the Masters and completing the career Grand Slam.

He even admitted that he wondered during Friday’s battling 72 if he really wanted to be around for the weekend for two more days of pain at the punishing Pittsburgh track and sounded like a man struggling to come to terms with the aftermath of his achievement at Augusta National than any perceived media slight.

“Pretty average,” McIlroy said when asked to sum up rounds of 74, 72 and 74 that left him tied for 53rd in the clubhouse on 10-over. Patience is paramount at Oakmont but without his A-game the Holywood star confessed that it was a struggle from the get-go and his patience also appears to have run out with elements of the media following the reporting of his non-conforming driver at the PGA Championship last month.

Asked if his refusal to speak after all four rounds at Quail Hollow and the first two rounds at Oakmont was due to frustration with his play, he said: “No, not really. It's more a frustration with you guys.

“I'm just, yeah, I don't know. I've been totally available for the last few years, and I'm not saying -- maybe not you guys, but maybe more just the whole thing.”

He admitted the driver issue was a factor but media burnout sounded a more plausible explanation;

“I mean, that was a part of it,” he said of the driver issue, where he was the only player named following his failed driver test at Quail Hollow and later admitted he was “a little pissed off” as Scottie Scheffler’s driver had also been ruled non-conforming. “Yeah, that was a part of it. But it's not as if -- like at Augusta, I skipped you guys on Thursday, so yeah, again, it's not as if -- it's not out of the ordinary. I've done it before; I'm just doing it a little more often.”

Rory McIlroy speaks to the media after his third round at Oakmont

Surrounded by reporters and TV crews in stifling heat, McIlroy said he felt like he’d earned the right to dodge the media when he felt like it.

“I feel like I've earned the right to do whatever I want to do, yeah,” he said, adding that while he’d said he’d skip when he felt like it unless the tour made it obligatory, he wasn’t deliberately daring them to do so.

“No, I'm not daring them to do anything,” he said. “I hope they don't change it because (skipping)… it's a nice luxury to have. But I'm just pointing out the fact that we have the ability to do it.”

The come down after winning the Masters is clearly a factor in McIlroy’s current mental state.

“Yeah, I alluded to it in my pre-tournament press conference,” he said. “You don't really know how it's going to affect you. You don't know how you're going to react to such a—I wouldn't say a life-altering occasion—but at least something that I've dreamt about for a long time. “Yeah, I alluded to the fact that, yeah, I have felt a little flat on the golf course afterwards.”

That manifested itself in his play on a course that tries a player’s patience like no other.

“The name of the game this week is staying patient, and try to do a good job of it out there, but it's one of those golf courses that you can lose patience on pretty quickly,” he said.

While he felt he drove the ball better than he had in some time, he found Oakmont a difficult mental test in terms of the penalty paid for mistakes.

“I was hoping to play better, but I didn’t,” he said, adding that his best play emerged late on Friday when he was fighting to make the cut.

“Yeah, it's funny, like it's much easier being on the cut line when you don't really care if you're here for the weekend or not,” he joked.

“I was sort of thinking, do I really want two more days here or not. So it makes it easier to play better when you're in that mindset.
“I actually feel like I've played okay this week. It's a sort of golf course where the tiniest mistakes get penalised a lot and that's sort of how it's felt this week.

“It's very difficult. You’ve got to be on every single shot. You know if you miss a fairway, you're going to be scrambling for par. You know if you miss your landing spot even coming from the fairways by a couple of yards, these greens repel the ball into rough, and you're up against collars, and it just makes things very, very tricky. So, yeah, you’ve§§ got to be totally on your game.”

He had a chance on a rain-softened course to make a third-round move, but bogeyed the third and dropped another shot at the ninth after driving into a drain and taking a penalty drop.

While he birdied the 10th, he bogeyed the 11th, 14th and 16th after missing greens and followed a sand save birdie at the 17th with a bogey at the last after finding more rough from the tee.

As for his hopes for Sunday, he did little to dispel the air of doom and gloom.

“Hopefully a round in under four and a half hours and get out of here,” he said before walking away.