Tiger Woods has been there.
The 15-time major champion recalled the text he sent to his longtime friend, Rory McIlroy, after the Northern Irishman’s collapse at the U.S. Open last month, when Bryson DeChambeau defeated him by one stroke at Pinehurst No. 2 in North Carolina.
“I just sent him a nice text and that was it,” Woods said Tuesday ahead of the British Open, which begins Thursday at Royal Troon. “I waited a week before I sent it.
“I just wanted to let it calm down… I sent him a nice text and I think he played last week and now he’s playing this week.”
Woods, who missed the cut at this year’s U.S. Open by two strokes, then divulged what he told McIlroy.
“Just basically, as you know, I’m your friend and I know this is a difficult moment,” the 48-year-old Woods recalled. “We’ve all been there as champions. We all lose.
“Unfortunately it just happened and the raw emotion of it, it’s still there and it’s going to be there for I’m sure some time. The faster he is able to get back on the horse and get back into contention like he did last week, the better it is for him.”
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McIlroy, 35, revealed that he never received the text because he changed his phone number two days after the U.S. Open, and he just found out about it from Woods on Tuesday.
“So I blanked Tiger Woods, which is probably not a great thing,” McIlroy joked.
McIlroy said Michael Jordan and Rafael Nadal were among the first people to reach out to him after his collapse over the final four holes at U.S. Open.
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DeChambeau finished the final round with a 1-over 71 for a total of 6-under, defeating McIlroy by a single stroke with a 55-yard shot from the bunker on the 18th hole.
“When I look back on that day, just like I look back on some of my toughest moments in my career, I’ll learn a lot from it and I’ll hopefully put that to good use,” McIlroy said at last week’s Scottish Open, where he tied for fourth at 14-under, four strokes behind winner Robert MacIntyre.
“It’s something that’s been a bit of a theme throughout my career. I’ve been able to take those tough moments and turn them into great things not very long after that.”
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McIlroy’s U.S. Open disaster came weeks after he filed for divorce from his wife of seven years, Erica Stoll.
The couple reconciled days before the U.S. Open began.
Stoll, who shares 3-year-old daughter Poppy with McIlroy, was seen supporting the four-time major champion at the Genesis Scottish Open in Scotland.
McIlroy’s divorce petition, which cited an “irrevocably broken” marriage, was voluntarily dismissed by a court in Palm Beach County, Fla., where the couple lives, Page Six confirmed last month.
“There have been rumors about my personal life recently, which is unfortunate. Responding to each rumor is a fool’s game,” McIlroy told The Guardian in a statement they published on June 11.
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“Over the past weeks, Erica and I have realized that our best future was as a family together. Thankfully, we have resolved our differences and look forward to a new beginning.”
McIlroy didn’t crack the top 10 at this year’s PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Course — where Xander Schauffele outlasted DeChambeau by a single stroke to claim the first major win of his career.
McIlroy’s last major win was a decade ago at the 2014 PGA Championship.
He won the Wells Fargo Championship in May, which marked his his fourth victory at Quail Hollow and his 26th PGA Tour title.
Prior to that, McIlroy and Shane Lowry won the Zurich Classic of New Orleans in a playoff against Chad Ramey and Martin Trainer.
McIlroy started 2024 with a victory at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic on the DP World Tour in January, his fourth time winning the tournament.