There had been fanciful ideas that McIlroy, enjoying what has been a week-long lap of honour in his home country, would provide the fairytale ending.
Back competing in his native Northern Ireland for the first time since winning the Masters to complete the career Grand Slam, McIlroy bounced along with a boisterous backing as he posted a 66 on Saturday.
He needed another fast start on Sunday if he was to emulate his reeling in of Scheffler from six back at the 2022 Tour Championship in Atlanta.
Two birdies and a bogey in his opening five holes was anything but. Scheffler meanwhile covered the same holes in three under par.
The thunderous atmosphere that had welcomed McIlroy on to the first tee suddenly fell flat.
There was little challenge from elsewhere.
Scheffler’s playing partner Li Haotong, who had just three bogeys in his first three rounds, posted two in his opening four holes. Matt Fitzpatrick mixed two bogeys with three birdies on the front nine.
And then.
Out of nowhere, Scheffler took two swipes to escape from a fairway bunker on the eighth and recorded a double bogey. His first dropped shots in 32 holes.
Meanwhile, up on the ninth, Gotterup was knocking in a birdie putt to get to 11 under. The lead was suddenly four.
But Scheffler returned to, as McIlroy put it on Saturday, “playing like Scottie”.
He fired to four feet for a bounceback birdie on the ninth. A par at the next, coupled with Gotterup and Li bogeys saw the lead return to six. Game definitely over.
Without Scheffler this would have been an Open for the ages.
The leaderboard pulsed in the jostle for the minor places. American names came to the fore as the Europeans largely failed to shine in the last global event before September’s Ryder Cup.
High finishes at majors earn big points as the race for one of the six automatic places in each 12-strong team heats up.
Two-time major winner Bryson DeChambeau closed with a 64 to reach nine under – although he must have been stewing over his opening seven-over 78 on Thursday.
Wyndham Clark hit a 65 to close on 11 under, Gotterup a 67 for -12 and English split the difference with a 66 to finish a shot better still in outright second. Defending champion Xander Schauffele was briefly in a tie for second before finishing on 10 under
MacIntyre, who didn’t get the fast start he needed, finished supremely well, with four birdies in his final seven holes to finish level with McIlroy, while Fitzpatrick catapulted above them both with his late birdies to add some European colour to a star-spangled leaderboard.
Of others likely to be in Europe’s team at Bethpage in New York, Tyrrell Hatton holed nothing as he finished back on seven under. That was the same score as his fellow Englishman Justin Rose. Sweden’s Ludvig Aberg had a ruinous eight on the par-four 11th among seven birdies in a closing 70 that saw him finish on six under.
