Rory McIlroy walked off the back nine at Bellerive with a tournament slipping through his fingers, and he knew exactly where it had gone. It wasn’t a missed putt or a bad bounce. It was a decision at the par-5 17th that never should have happened the way it did, and it handed Wyndham Clark even more breathing room as he closed out the BMW Championship.

McIlroy admitted after his final round that a layup decision on the 17th hole was what ultimately cost him the title.

“We talked about it earlier in the week, I tried to get it up a bit too far. I should have been taking that left bunker out of play. If you’re going to lay it up, lay it up. So just another stupid decision with a layup on a par-5 that cost me,” McIlroy explained.

83% of our readers couldn't break par yesterday

Changing winds, tricky bunkers, and quirky breaks test every shot. Beat par, compare scores, and return tomorrow for a new challenge.

TEE OFF HERE↗

Clark had built a five-shot cushion over McIlroy heading into the final round in St Louis, but by the time they reached the par-3 16th, that lead had vanished completely. McIlroy had two good looks at taking the lead on 14 and 15 but couldn’t convert either. Then on 16, with both players safely on the green, Clark calmly rolled in a 16-footer for his first birdie of the round. McIlroy’s birdie attempt slid by. Still, that is not where he thinks things unravelled.

Get the Essentially Golf Newsletter. The pulse of today's golf world — daily news from fairways across the globe and tips to improve your game.

“The putt on 14, the putt on 15, even the putt on 16, they were good putts. They just all stayed or the one on 15 just went low. But, yeah, good putts that just didn’t go in,” McIlroy added.

Clark added another birdie on the par-5 17th, while McIlroy’s poor lie in the left rough undid him. Trying to lay up with a wedge, he pulled the shot into a bunker sitting 113 yards from the green. From there, things unraveled further, as he went from one bunker to another and finished the hole with a costly bogey.

With McIlroy unable to respond and his own 17th-hole decision working against him, Clark had the cushion he needed down the stretch.

McIlroy still saw the week as progress rather than a setback. His game held together despite lingering swing concerns, and East Lake is next on the postseason calendar.

“I’m closer than I was at the start of the week. But I’m still, I’m not in a spot where I’m super happy with where my game is or where my swing is,” McIlroy said.

That gap between execution and comfort could shape how McIlroy approaches East Lake. The Tour Championship now gives McIlroy one final opportunity to turn his improved week at Bellerive into a season-ending victory. The decisions down the stretch will just need to hold up better than they did at Bellerive.