Rory McIlroy, Audemars Piguet Ambassador, won his first career Major at the US Open
By MyWatch
Audemars Piguet golf ambassador, Rory McIlroy won the U.S. Open on Sunday June 19th with the lowest score in the tournament’s 111-year history, taking the title by eight strokes to become the youngest winner, at 22 years old, of the golf season’s second major championship in 88 years.
McIlroy led from the start at the Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Maryland, USA. He shot a 6-under par 65 for a three-shot advantage in the first round, followed with rounds of 66 and 68, before shooting a 2-under-par 69 in Sunday’s final round, to finish 16-under par, the tournament’s lowest winning score in relation to par. His 8-shots margin of victory was the fourth-largest at the U.S. Open.
McIlroy is the youngest U.S. Open champion since Bobby Jones in 1923 and his victory comes two months after he blew a four-stroke lead in the final round of the Masters Tournament. ”Augusta was a very valuable experience for me,” said McIlroy, the youngest major winner since Woods at the 1997 Masters. ”I learned a few things about myself and my game.” McIlroy previously had three third-place finishes in major championships, at the 2009 and 2010 PGA Championships and the 2010 British Open.
This victory represents a substantial step for a player considered by many in the game to be at the forefront of the next generation of stars. The common assumption is that this major title is the first of many for Rory McIlroy, who climbs in the Official World Rankings to World Number 4.
Amongst the other Audemars Piguet ambassadors, Lee Westwood of England, tied for 3 place at 6-under on Sunday, and last year’s winner Graeme McDowell, McIlroy’s compatriot from Northern Ireland, tied for 14th place. The last time two non-Americans from the same country captured the U.S. Open in consecutive years was in 1920-21.
The players composing the international Audemars Piguet Golf Team are Lee Westwood, Rory McIlroy, Ian Poulter, Miguel Angel Jiménez, Vijay Singh, Anthony Kim, and Darren Clarke. All are particularly keen devotees of Haute Horlogerie and proudly wear Royal Oak and Royal Oak Offshore watches. These collections embody a perfect combination of elegance, excellence and strength, qualities that Audemars Piguet particularly appreciates in its sports ambassadors.
