Colin Montgomerie says Rory McIlroy 's on-off split from wife Erica Stoll may have impacted his disastrous US Open result.
McIlroy, 35, announced this week that he would be taking time away from golf after a shock collapse at the US Open, where he agonisingly missed out on his first major in a decade.
On the verge of victory, McIlroy missed two putts to hand Bryson DeChambeau the slam. A visibly crushed McIlroy made an early exit from Pinehurst before the trophy presentation even got underway.
Just days before the tournament, McIlroy had announced that he and Stoll were trying to patch up their rocky marriage. And given that his performance collapsed so soon after that statement, Montgomerie, himself a five-time major runner-up and a former Ryder Cup captain, believes it would've weighed heavily on the golfer from Northern Ireland.
"It's bad enough going through a divorce," Montgomerie said on The Sports Agents podcast. "It's damn near impossible to concentrate on one particular item, which is trying to get round a golf course of extreme difficulty."
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"This isn't a course with birdies galore. This is a course which is a demanding emotional rollercoaster going up and down. It's an incredible golf course to play on but it's so tough to mentally get through.
"Yes, he was divorced one week and then they were trying to patch it up next week, very publicly. The 10 years of hurt and the scarring that's been going on in Rory's life for the last 10 years to try and win a major, there's a huge distraction coming up with two ahead with five to go, this was his best opportunity within those 10 years to win this."
McIlrory couldn't believe it when he lost his lead in the final stages ((Image: Getty))While Montgomerie has his theories on why McIlroy crumbled, a statistic which emerged after the US Open suggests the 60-year old may have a point. He added: "I felt it all came out, not just on hole 18 but on hole 16 when that was a very short putt, when that was two and a half feet.
"There was a statistic that came up which said he had holed 490 odd in a row and that he hadn't missed under three foot this season. Then of course there is the two and a half footer misses. You've got to put that down to that's not coincidence. You have to put that down to what's happening in his head."
Confirming his break from the course, McIlroy took to social media to explain: "I'm going to take a few weeks away from the game to process everything and build myself back up for my defence of the Genesis Scottish Open and The Open at Royal Troon. See you in Scotland."
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