U.S. Open 2024: Twitter meme’d Rory McIlroy to death following gutting loss at Pinehurst

Originally, this headline read “Golf Twitter meme’d Rory McIlroy to death …” Then, after continue to scroll through the many tweets, I realized it was all of Twitter.

That’s when you know you are witnessing something historic – when all of Twitter comes together to pile on one person or one specific moment. Folks from every walk of life chiming in with their meme, their thought, their funny quip. Golf’s most recent example of this came on Friday of the 2024 PGA Championship last month, when World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler was arrested outside of the gates of Valhalla Golf Club. Social media had the field day of all field days with that one.

If there is one consolation prize Rory McIlroy can take from Sunday’s gutting defeat at the 2024 U.S. Open, it’s that he has now become a possibly legendary meme on the ol’ bird app (yes, we know it’s X now). And if you are wondering what we are talking about, it’s this picture of McIlroy staring daggers through the television as he watched Bryson DeChambeau rip his heart out:

Pain personified. Now, McIlroy can go one of two directions with this. He can use this as fuel. It can be his “LeBron locking in” moment, where he goes on to triumph in the near future and this meme actually becomes a good thing he can joke about. Or, the uglier direction, where this becomes the lasting image of his career, a reminder of just how close he came before letting it slip away. 

For now, if he dares to go online this week (would not recommend), he’ll be met with an endless barrage of memeage golf hasn’t seen since Matthew Wolff ripped out Bryson DeChambeau’s heart at the 2019 3M Open. Remember that one?

Bryson has since bounced back admirably. Will Rory be next? Time will tell. For now, here are some of the more creative tweets we saw of McIlroy’s moment he wish he could forget:

Again, there is a world where this one day becomes a positive meme in Rory McIlroy’s story. I speak for many when I say I hope that day comes soon.