Throughout the years many great players have come up empty come playoff time.

The word choke comes to mind when thinking about this lot of players.

James Harden and Joel Embiid have been two of the best NBA players in the past decade. Come playoff time these two tend to shrink, wilt, and go home. They are both chokers. In the biggest moments they are nowhere to be found.

Barry Bonds is one of the greatest baseball players of all time. Steroids or no, Bonds is the home run king. Yet, put Bonds in a playoff series and it became choke city. First in Pittsburgh, then later in San Francisco, Bonds’s poor performances helped knock his team out before winning it all. He made one World Series in 2002, but the Giants came up short.

Two pitchers that come to mind as chokers are Clayton Kershaw and Dwight Gooden. Thanks to the ultimate choker, Bill Buckner, Gooden did win a World Series ring in 1986. Buckner’s brutal error in game six allowed Gooden and his horrendous performance off the hook. Kershaw is only 13-13 with a 4.49 ERA in his playoff career. With Dave Roberts as manager, there is the added bonus of a choker running the team. Kershaw did finally get a ring in 2020, thanks to the Covid shortened season.

It is rare, however, for a great player to have a history of success in their sports biggest moments and then morph into a choke artist in the middle of their career. 

Golf has presented us with just that type of player in Rory McIlroy.

McIlroy won four majors by age 25. From 2011-2014 McIlroy won a U.S. Open, a British Open, and two PGA Championships.

McIlroy is now 35 years old, is ranked number two in the world, and is still searching for that fifth major. It certainly isn’t for lack of talent or lack of effort. From 2015-2024 McIlroy has 21 top ten finishes in majors. That includes four runner ups and one third place finish.

Two years ago at the British Open, McIlroy led entering the final round. He hit green after green that Sunday. He also missed putt after putt after putt after putt. He finished third.

Often times McIlroy will play one loose hole somewhere during a final round or hit one or two shots into horrible spots, eventually costing him an opportunity to win.

It has been one near miss after another for McIlroy, often because Rory couldn’t put together a winning performance in the final round.

Sunday at Pinehurst #2 McIlroy took choking to an all new level.

It was the kind of choke job that you might expect from a young player contending in a major for the first time or a mid level player that played over his head for three rounds and suddenly realized the moment.

It was not the type of thing you would expect to see from the second ranked player in the world. It is hard to envision the likes of Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, or Tiger Woods collapsing quite like McIlroy did Sunday.

It was shocking, yet it really wasn’t. I was waiting for it to happen, truth be told.

Rory McIlroy has become sports biggest choke artist.

The consequences of this gag job were grave. I have made no bones about my hatred of LIV Golf. I won’t rehash all of my reasons(greed) for my feelings(greed) about the players(greed) who jumped to LIV. The beneficiary of McIlroy’s choke was Bryson DeChambeau, one of LIV’s premiere players. Truth be told, DeChambeau is also one of the best players in the world.

I thought DeChambeau would find too much trouble off the tee to contend. He hits the biggest bombs in golf, but accuracy sometimes doesn’t come along for the ride. DeChambeau did find tons of trouble off the tee. With the help of some unbelievably lucky breaks on lies, DeChambeau got himself out of trouble darn near every time. In some cases, DeChambeau turned trouble into birdies.

Facts are facts, and DeChambeau made tons of great shots and certainly deserved victory.

Having said that, DeChambeau did squander his lead. While he was scuffling on Sunday, saving pars on many holes, McIlroy began to drop putt after putt. With a red hot putter it looked like McIlroy was destined to finally snap his majors drought.

Then things got very “Rory on Sunday in a major” like.

With a two shot lead and five holes to play, the noose that always finds its way around McIlroy’s neck began to tighten.

 

 

The first big gag happened on the 16th green.

 

 

To tell you how out of character that miss was, know that McIlroy was 496 for 496 this year on putts of 3 feet or less. Technically it wasn’t really the first gag. After securing a two shot lead, McIlroy promptly smash hooked his drive on 15 into the junk. That led to a bogey to reduce the lead to one. Then the missed two foot putt on 16 put things back to even. The kicker is that DeChambeau had missed a short putt on 15  just seconds before McIlroy’s miss.

McIlroy managed to survive hitting into the bunker on the par 3 17th hole. The par left thing all even as McIlroy headed to 18.

Both McIlroy, and DeChambeau behind him, hit tee shots on 18 into the native area. McIlroy had the better lie and eventually left himself only 3 feet for par. Then…

 

 

McIlroy could only watch and hope for a DeChambeau bogey to send it to a playoff. With DeChambeau’s tee shot bogey was certainly a possibility.

DeChambeau could only punch his second shot into a front bunker, some 55 yards away from the hole. Then he did this.

 

 

A tap in later left Rory distraught and leaving the premises without a word.

 

 

Again, DeChambeau deserved to win. He made shot after shot that other players couldn’t make. His length allows him to play a different game. However, it is true that he caught a ton of breaks in the native area.

That leads me to the other talking point about this US Open. Bryson DeChambeau is now a fan favorite. Quite frankly, I find his act to be just that, an act. He looks into the camera more than any player I’ve seen. He is a big “look at me” kind of guy.

NBC absolutely slobbered over DeChambeau. Mike Tirico needed a bib. Brandel Chamblee was ridiculed because he was negative towards DeChambeau. People said this based on the fact Chamblee is a well known LIV hater. Chamblee was also slobbering over DeChambeau. The only things he said that could remotely be considered negative were both facts. First, DeChambeau is going to miss the Olympics, which he knew when he took the giant bag of money from LIV. Second, Chamblee correctly noted how many good lies DeChambeau got in the junk.

The whole Bryson loveseat was nauseating.

Without Rory’s choke job, DeChambeau is runner up. That is also a fact.

There is no doubt DeChambeau is changing the way golf is played. He likes eyes on him so he can try to impress people. He wants to be the smartest guy in the room. He still plays slow and annoying. All of it is working in his favor, and not even I can deny that.

Back to the choke.

Where does McIlroy go from here? He has certainly suffered through some difficult Sundays in majors over the past decade.

This? Well, this was an all timer.

Picture Michael Jordan missing a breakaway layup to win a championship.

Imagine Bill Buckner allowing a dribbler to go through his legs that could have secured the World Series. Wait. What? Oh, that did happen. That’s right.

Well, picture a Hall of Fame coach like Pete Carroll calling a pass play from the half yard line rather than running it in. Huh? Yea that’s right Marshawn. You didn’t get that ball handed to you.

Okay, so there have been some gigantic choke jobs by some pretty good players and coaches. Rory’s choke job Sunday will be listed right near the top. And it is inexplicable how a great player at the top of his game can continue to wilt in championship situations. A guy who has won four majors in his career.

McIlroy is different than my examples at the start of this piece.

Embiid and Harden have never tasted a championship and may never do so. Bonds came up empty. Kershaw needed a severely shortened season and a severely limited crowd of a World Series to win a championship. Gooden needed one of the worst choke jobs ever to win a title.

McIlroy knows all about tasting the fruits of a major championship. He has won Ryder Cups as well. Yet, the second ranked golfer in all the world caught a case of the putting yips to add to his list of major Sunday miseries.

I guess you could say it is why sports are so fantastic. You just never know what might happen. Yet, that is the thing about McIlroy’s choke. I couldn’t be certain it was coming, but I sure was not surprised when it happened.

Hopefully McIlroy will conquer these situations sometime soon. No golfer has been under the microscope more than Rory. On the course he is one of the most popular players to follow. Off the course he stepped forward to defend the PGA Tour even though the PGA commissioner was really hanging him out to dry. Even his personal life had the spotlight on it the last month.

It is so rare to see an athlete at the top of his game and the top of his sport have a stretch of disasters in the biggest moments that just keep coming. Welcome to Rory McIlroy’s world. To his credit, he did release a professional statement on Monday.

 

 

Who issued this gag order?

Maybe it was LIV head honcho Greg Norman. He sure would know all about such things.

Two Cent Takes

College Hoops

~Danny Hurley was so smart to spurn the Lakers to stay at UConn. He has a chance to become one of the legendary coaches in the sport’s history.

~ESPN was kind enough to list the top 100 transfers. My head is spinning. There will be no way going forward like this to keep track of even your favorite team’s roster. Total insanity.

NBA

~The Celtics are champs. They could have saved the last two and a half months and just listened to me.

~Charles Barkley announced he will retire after next year. That will be a sad day for fans of the NBA and fans of entertainment.

NHL

~Much like the Celtics, the Florida Panthers laid an egg in their sweep attempt against Edmonton. Tonight they can hoist the Cup and leave Connor McDavid still without a Stanley Cup.

NFL

~If you were a Sunday Ticket subscriber like me, pay attention to the current trial. Roger Goodell testified this week saying the league has a right to price Sunday Ticket like a premium service. Maybe when all is said and done, we will all get rich. Or maybe you will get enough money to pay for Sunday Ticket this upcoming season.

~49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk told his former college teammate, Jayden Daniels, that San Francisco doesn’t want him. Queue the Steelers rumors in 3…2…1…

~Hard Knocks will cover the entire AFC North with their in season edition of the program. What is the over/under on Tomlinisms that we hear over the course of the show?

~Bill Belichick is dating a young lady 48 years younger than him. Finally, Belichick has done something that impresses me.

College Football

~Former LSU coach Les Miles is suing his former school for vacating wins to avoid a stiffer punishment from the NCAA. The vacated wins will make Miles chance of getting in the Hall of Fame next to impossible. I agree with crazy Les on this one. Vacating wins as if they didn’t happen is the absolute dumbest penalty ever thought up.

Golf

~Two of the three names I gave you for the US Open did okay. Colin Morikawa and Hideki Matsuyama both finished top 15, but they didn’t win us any money. My other bet was Tiger making the cut. He hit the ball well enough, but he just doesn’t play enough to stay sharp. It is looking more and more like the end of the competitive line for Woods.

~Kudos to Max Homa for keeping his sense of humor after missing the cut.

 

 

MLB

~Idiots run on the field all the time and get arrested for their trouble. Last week we saw something way better, and the legend whose jersey was being worn by said idiot hit a home run with this move.

 

 

~It is stunning just how mediocre, at best, the National League is after you get by the top 4 teams.

~Umpire move of the week causes the usually calm Robby Thomson to go full blown ballistic. This was an old school brouhaha.

 

 

Easily the best part of that clip is the John Kruk commentary.

The Weekly Shiny Penny

I think any time I can work Snoop Dogg into my column it automatically elevates the product. With that in mind, how about Snoop calling baseball?

 

 

A Penny For My Final Thought…

Last week, in the main part of my column and also on my Musings podcast, I addressed the social media debate that is raging about whether the Pirates are trying to win(and if they will win this year). Well, I thought I would do a quick follow up on the topic with my Final Thought.

The Pirates sit at 35-37 with a win over the Reds in their first matchup of the season —more on that stupidity on my Musings podcast. They have 24 games left until the All Star break, and they are mostly against mediocre or worse teams. I would argue the Pirates need to go 14-10 during this stretch to vault themselves in to legitimate contention.

Here is the problem. For every Paul Skenes mesmerizing “splinker” or triple digit fastball, there is this kind of garbage.

 

 

One more time for the people in the back. The owner is a clown and isn’t going anywhere. The owner consistently hires below average people for his GM. Then the owner hamstrings the incompetent GM with a ridiculously low budget. The GM proceeds to sign trash heap players like Yasmani Grandal, pictured above lobbing the ball back to the pitcher allowing a steal of home by a player on the worst team in the National League. But don’t worry, Grandal makes up for it with his .185 batting average and blazing speed. Here are the trash heap players I speak of:

  • Rowdy Tellez- On fire of late, bringing his average all the way up to .230. Plus, he has smashed a whopping 2 home runs already, putting him on pace for at least 6. He also plays a…well, really poor defense and may slightly win a race against Grandal.
  • Grandal- See above.
  • Michael Taylor- Hitting .201 and gets on base at a crazy .253 clip. He has 1 whole home run, making Tellez look like Babe Ruth.
  • Edward Olivares- Does have 5 home runs, but hitting .225 and has an OBP of .290. Defense is mediocre.
  • Martin Perez- Has given up 70 hits in 57 innings. He has an ERA of 4.71. He is much better at dumping Gatorade mixed with sunflower seeds on the now annoyed player of the game than he is at pitching.
  • Marco Gonzales- Threw 17 whole innings before going on the 60 day DL.
  • Aroldis Chapman- Has been better of late, but overall has an ERA of 3.81 and a whopping WHIP of 1.65 thanks to 26 walks in 26 innings. For the money they paid him, more should be expected. Hopefully he continues to trend up.

See, everybody listed above except for Chapman could be released tomorrow and replaced with someone in their minor league system and it wouldn’t be any worse. Sadly, it may not be much better either. Young guys like Jack Suwinski and Henry Davis are struggling mightily, while Nick Gonzales may be the team’s best hitter. In other words, when it comes to player development(or choosing the correct players) the Pirates are barely batting over the Mendoza line.

Still, I would rather see Henry Davis play, knowing that if he works through his struggles he could be a big part of the current and future team. I am done with the guys listed above. I am also perilously close to being done with Ke’Bryan Hayes. Hayes must pick up the pace.

The pitching is carrying the team, Bryan Reynolds is being Bryan Reynolds, and we are witnessing a Cutch revival. They have a legitimate shot at a playoff spot.

But my answer hasn’t changed, but has been reinforced.

A team that is serious about winning wouldn’t litter their roster with bums like those above. And if a player pulled a stunt like Grandal’s lackadaisical toss back to the pitcher —which he does often by the way— his butt would be glued to the bench. For the Pirates it was just another day, another game, and another embarrassing gaffe.

Trying to win? Not by a winner’s standards.

Just my two cents…