Pain.

Rory McIlroy choked on Sunday at the US Open and it was painful for all to witness.

This one will hurt for a long, long time.

Settling into another evening of one of golf’s unrivalled Sundays at the majors, you knew it was going to be an engrossing evening of sports television. What transpired, however, was pain unlike we’ve ever witnessed before, watching a sportsman unravel in the most unbelievable of terms in the guts of just over 25 minutes. Just as they rounded the bend for home it all became scrambled.

The hard work had been done. Thursday and Friday managed relatively comfortably, although the scoring wasn’t coming easy for anyone traversing the Pinehurst fairways. Left with a smidgen of a chance after Saturday, three shots adrift of the eventual winner. And then a blistering start to Sunday. And then what can only be described as sheer and utter capitulation from Rory McIlroy, as the trophy not just slipped from his fingertips but rather fell and shattered into a million pieces, as each three foot putt lipped out, the cup never looked so small while he wished a black hole unimaginably large manifested itself to take him away into the abyss.

We had been here before with Rory, but never like this. Never in his 10-year famine had he been so agonizingly close to ending it. Two up with four holes to go and Bryson DeChambeau meandering his way unspectacularly behind him, it was all well within reach.

And then, and there’s no way to massage it, Rory choked.

The stattos were quick to the punch. 496 out of 496 putts within three feet all season long. That was, up until the 16th hole on Sunday when a putt for par lipped out. And that statistic took another blow, devastatingly so, on the 18th. And his race was ran. I can’t imagine how Rory felt in that second but I’m sure it involved a quivering lip, perhaps a skipped heartbeat and a rush of warm blood over his face. He still had a potential playoff to come as the cameras poked into his view from the sanctity of the clubhouse, his face awash with anxiety, but I think the damage had been done, the wounds too deep, there was no coming away from that moment.

And, when Bryson astonishingly clawed himself out of the bunker on 18 with one of his finest ever shots, a few feet from the hole to par and secure the title, Rory bolted out of the clubhouse as he had every right to do. There’s no press conferences here, there’s nothing that can be said. There are simply no words. They were all left out there on the last few holes for the world to see. Sticking a microphone in front of him would have provided no solace for anyone, bar feeding the sadists who wanted to see him somehow verbalize what had just happened. If the miss on 18 was tough viewing, this would have been agonizing for anybody to witness.

So where does Rory go from here? Can he ever win a major? It’s ten years since he last did it, he’s flirted closely in the past but this was so much different. Never had he felt so close and then so far from ever winning a major within such a short space of time. Had you brewed a cup of tea when he was two shots up with four holes to go, it would’ve sat idly by between him having the title within his grasp and his Lexus careering away from the grounds, still warm to the touch.

It does feel like he’s now fallen over the precipice. The scar tissue is so deep now, irrecoverably so. Will he ever be able to back himself in such a position again? Some sort of scenario where he’s put up an insurmountable lead on a Saturday, or not had to main event the last few holes as a closely-led leader on a Sunday evening may be his only hope.

Bryson, the heartbreaker, was clearly ready for the moment. One over in the last five holes was enough to see him through. A man often criticised for his abrasive personality, he expertly managed the crowd in his winning speech with his Fathers Day wishes before dedicating the trophy to his late father. He schmoozed with the Sky Sports punditry panel, before joining the Golf Channel’s Johnson Wagner to re-create his 18th hole bunker shot as darkness descended on Pinehurst in one of the best bits of organic sporting television in a while.

I don’t know if he’s had some sort of personality transplant, but less exposure to DeChambeau on the PGA Tour after his LIV transfer has somehow enamored him to fans who don’t have to listen to his antics first hand so often anymore.

On Sunday, he kept his composure and let Rory’s loss be his reward.

Rory will be back for more majors. More pundits, watchers-on and fools with their money will convince themselves he has a chance four times a year. Because, somewhat painfully, he does. He’s one of the best golfers in the world year after year, it would be financial suicide for bookmakers and experts to rule him out.

But how his mind reacts to this one will be the bearing of that. Getting out of bed the next few mornings will be rough, as those misses on the 16th and 18th haunt the back of his eyelids. Images that will be hard to banish for a while.