Seven Birdies, One Double, and Rory McIlroy's Week in a Single Card

Rory McIlroy shot 3-under 67 on Sunday at Trump International Golf Links Doonbeg. Best round of his week. Seven birdies. He still walked off 1-under for four days, a long way from the tournament, because the 16th and 17th cost him three shots in the space of about twenty minutes.

He teed off at 9.20am and was showered and talking to reporters by the time Shane Lowry got a handshake from Donald Trump on the first tee.

Golf Raw was not at Doonbeg. Scoring and quotes come from The42, Golf Monthly, the Irish Times live blog, ESPN's scorecard data, the Clare Echo and the PGA Tour wire report, published 12 and 13 September 2026.

Where the shots went

Three up on the front nine, per The42, then two more in a row around the turn. At that point he was playing like a man who'd found something.

Bogey at the 12th. Birdie back at the 14th. Then the 16th went double, the 17th went bogey, and a week that never really started was properly over. A birdie at the last made the number look respectable.

ESPN has Doonbeg at par 70 and 6,838 yards, with McIlroy opening Thursday in 69. Working back from where he stood after each day, the four rounds come out 69, 69, 74, 67. That's a derivation rather than a published card, so treat it accordingly.

Golf Monthly caught him summing it up: “Yeah, a few big numbers in there but enough good stuff.”

Saturday's 74 and Sunday's 67 were the same round

Seven shots apart on paper. Identical in construction.

The Clare Echo logged Saturday's 74 as the round that dumped him to 2-over and out of contention. Sunday he shot seven under his Saturday score and still coughed up a double and a bogey back to back.

Lowry shot 62 round this place on Friday. Sixty-five on Saturday. Same course, same wind, same greens. What separated the two Irishmen all week was never the birdies, and McIlroy made plenty. It was that Lowry spent four days not making sevens.

McIlroy's own read, via The42, was that his iron play had improved considerably and that a couple of poor decisions off the tee on Saturday had done the damage.

Half right. The Saturday diagnosis holds up. A double at the 16th on a Sunday afternoon with the tournament gone is something else, and he didn't name it. Neither would I in front of a microphone.

He spent his press time on somebody else

Finishing five hours before the leaders leaves a man with time to talk about the golf he'd rather be watching.

Asked about Lowry, McIlroy told The42 it would be absolutely incredible, then reached back to the Cognizant Classic earlier this year and the chance Lowry let slip there. His sense was that Lowry's season never recovered from it. The whole country wants this one, he said, and so does he.

On his own position he offered six words: “I don't feel too far away.”

Lowry is 39, won this tournament as an amateur in 2009, and came to Clare having slid to 53rd in the world. He started Sunday four clear and chasing a first individual win in four years.

The number he leaves with

Somewhere in the low 40s. The Irish Times had T41 on its live blog. The42 filed 42nd. The leaders were still on the property, so it moves.

For a defending champion that's a thin week. Twelve months ago at The K Club he holed a 28-foot eagle putt at the 72nd to force a playoff and won it at the third extra hole.

Wentworth is Thursday. He says he's fine about it.

The Raw Verdict

Any of us would take seven birdies on a Sunday and never mention the rest. That's the trap in this scorecard. The good shots were tour standard all week and the bad ones were not, and no amount of iron play fixes a seven.

He's heading to Wentworth telling himself he's close, and on the evidence of his approach play he probably is. The 16th on Sunday is the part worth sitting with though, because nothing was at stake and it happened anyway.

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