I’m not perfect’: Analyst opens up after roasted Rory McIlroy read

ylie Kaufman says you can aim left-center.

But now there are some catches.

“You just got to hammer it,” he said.

“And it needs to hit the back of the hole, go up and then go down.

Yes, Kaufman’s good. Smylie is smiling a couple weeks after the U.S. Open’s final round, where Rory McIlroy’s putt for par on Pinehurst’s 18th green was 3 feet, 9 inches away and above the hole — and Kaufman, an NBC on-course analyst, gave his audience the following read:

“Not outside the hole. It’s a left-center putt, but you can make it if you start it right in the middle, too.”

Only McIlroy aimed well left of left-center — and missed to the right. He bogeyed, and he finished a stroke behind winner Bryson DeChambeau.

And Kaufman heard it from folks. Even Jon Rahm had thoughts. The 2021 U.S. champ had withdrawn from this year’s tournament earlier in the week and watched from home. Mostly, he said, his viewing is done without sound.

But there was some volume on McIlroy’s putt.

“I thought from the times I had it on and I could hear, I thought [the broadcast] was OK,” Rahm said a few days later. “One of the things that absolutely burned me, and I think it was Smylie who said it, he severely underplayed how difficult Rory’s putt on 18 was. When he said it’s a left-center putt, if you hit that putt left-center and miss the hole, you’re off the green because of how much slope there is. You could see Rory aiming at least a cup left from three feet. They severely underplayed how difficult that putt was. Severely.