U.S. OPEN NOTEBOOK: McIlroy Opens Up On ‘Average’ Play, Media Frustrations

OAKMONT, Pa. — After not talking to media over the first couple of rounds at this week’s U.S. Open, specifically telling a USGA representative that he was “good” as he kept walking to the locker room, Rory McIlroy did speak to reporters Saturday about a week he admits has been pretty average.

“That’s 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,” McIlroy reflected.

One thing that has not frustrated McIlroy has been his driver. He said this week is the best he’s driven in a long time.

Still, his answers to quite a bit of the questions were quite short, displaying a clear frustration quite possibly both with the USGA and media.

McIlroy opened up more about his frustration with the media stating he has been “totally available” for the last few years before clarifying he was peeved more about “the whole thing”.

When pressed about the USGA driver testing and the news coming out prior to the PGA Championship, he did concede that was part of it.

“At Augusta, I skipped you guys on Thursday, so it’s not out of the ordinary,” he stated. “I’ve done it before; I’m just doing it a little more often. I feel like I’ve earned the right to do whatever I want to do.”

McIlroy believes he is not daring the PGA Tour anything in regard to forcing golfers to speak to the media as a conduit to the fans after rounds. He hopes this does not change because it is a nice luxury to have.

As for his golf, Friday definitely showcased frustration but ultimately, he safely made the cut.

“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 plainly stated. “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.”

McIlroy knows at this point that at 10 over a win is out of contention, but he still does have one hope for Sunday’s final round.

“Hopefully a round in under four and a half hours and get out of here,” offered McIlroy with a smirk.

HASTINGS SET TO BE LOW AMATEUR

Justin Hastings was the lone amateur to make the weekend and now he faces the exact same situation Jon Rahm had in 2016, golfing two more rounds knowing what awaits him.

“I haven’t done a whole lot of thinking about it,” he said a few feet away from the scoring area. “I think if you try to think about the things off the golf course while you’re out there it will kick your butt pretty good. So, I’ve been trying to stay as focused as I can. Yeah, I mean, that’s a big goal I came in here with, so I’m pretty excited to have the opportunity to do that.”

Hastings, the 2025 Latin America Amateur Champion from the Cayman Islands, undoubtedly has had his share of locals pulling for him given his caddie Aaron Willliams is local and works at Oakmont.

To date, Hastings is unsure how he even ended up getting his phone number, but the two spoke months ago and realized that each would be a good fit for the other.

“He’s exceeded all of my expectations,” he detailed. “I call myself a good greens reader and the original plan this week was for me to read a lot of the putts inside 20 feet and have him help me on the big touchy feelers and downhill sliders. It’s kind of turned into him being in my ear pretty much every putt and he’s been so on. Before today I was high up there in Strokes Gained: Putting, but we feel really good on the greens, and he’s helped me there a lot.”

Hastings explained that Williams has helped him several times but it was a read on the seventh hole of Saturday’s round which really stood out.

“On hole seven, there was a tricky pin out there today on a bunch of slope, hit a good long iron there behind the pin and it’s this big bender. We both were talking about a piece of sand, but we were talking about two totally different pieces of sand. His piece of sand was about four feet higher than mine and so thankfully he ended up pointing it out and I had to do a reset.

“Sure enough I hit it there and left it one inch short in the jaws and it would have been 10 feet low if I hit it on my line. There’s been a couple of times, not to say I’ve been completely fooled out there.”

Regardless of how the weekend goes, Hastings will stay an amateur at least until the Open Championship. He has PGA Tour Americas status so he will go straight to Ottawa for the tour stop there next.

Justin Hastings plays a shot on the fourth hole with caddie, Aaron Williams, in the background during the second round of the 2025 U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club in Oakmont, Pa. on Friday, June 13, 2025. (Jeff Haynes/USGA)

NEW LEISH ON LIFE

It has been since the 2022 Open Championship that Marc Leishman was seen in a major, though this changed when he qualified for this year’s U.S. Open at the Rockville, Maryland site.

It does not hurt that the Australian believes he is playing some of the best golf of his career, winning the LIV Golf Miami event at Trump National Doral earlier this spring.

Leishman backed this up with a 2-under round Saturday, vaulting all the way up to a tie for 11th place at 4 over for the tournament.

“There’s nothing bad about contending in a major,” he believes. “It has been a while, but like I said, I’ve been playing some really good golf. We play against really, really strong fields every single week on LIV, and I think doing that has made me work harder not only on my golf game but my body and my head, and that lends itself to more family life, too. Like I said, life is in a good spot at the moment for me. I’m very happy and happy to be contending at a U.S. Open. Hopefully I can be not too far back tomorrow and see how we go.”

While many like courses where birdies run rampant, Leishman prefers courses where it is tough and the punishment versus reward in determining a good shot is very clear.

Leishman tied for 18th place in the 2016 U.S. Open held at Oakmont, so he has experienced past success here.

Of course, there has been many golf fans and media for that matter wondering if players who made the jump from the PGA Tour not named Bryson DeChambeau have seen any improvement.

It is possible that Leishman has a case of sorts, but regardless he has zero regrets for making the move.

“Life is pretty uncertain at times,” determined Leishman. “Obviously I want to be here (playing majors). These are the biggest tests in golf. I knew that was going to be a chance when I signed with LIV. I knew that could have been one of the negatives. But the positives so much outweighed the negatives for me. You’ve just got to play good in the qualifiers and hopefully make the most of it.

“If I have a good day tomorrow, I can hopefully finish top four and get into all of them next year. Yeah, you wonder, of course, if you’re going to get into them again, but there is certainly no regret because, like I said, my life is as good as it’s ever been right now. I’m as happy as I’ve ever been.

“Of course I would rather be playing the majors, but I really enjoyed just sitting down with my kids and mates watching the Masters and the PGA. I’m a lot happier if people were to be sitting down watching me, but it was a pretty good two weeks for me.”

Marc Leishman plays his tee shot on the seventh hole during the second round of the 2025 U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club in Oakmont, Pa. on Friday, June 13, 2025. (Kathryn Riley/USGA)