On the 15th green, as the rain continued to shroud these Hoylake links in some kind of medieval mist, Rory McIlroy rolled a 10-foot birdie putt towards the centre of the hole.
At the last moment, it turned to the right and slid by. It was a familiar sight for the Northern Irishman during another week of major frustration and with that, yet another challenge was done.
For a while here on a day of unrelenting meteorological misery, McIlroy had threatened to run through this field and present the final day of a fascinating but ultimately anti-climactic Open Championship with the adrenaline shot it badly needed.
With Brian Harman playing so metronomically at the top of the leaderboard, only real pressure from the pack was likely to disrupt his rhythm. McIlroy, out a couple of minutes after 1pm, looked at one stage as though he may be about to provide it.
After saving himself early disappointment by getting up and down following a drive that had scattered spectators down the left of the second fairway, McIlroy’s response was to birdie the next three holes.
Rory McIlroy finished seven strokes behind leader Brian Harman in the final standings
He briefly threatened to come through the field on the final day but fell away at the end of a frustrating week
When he rolled one in from shortish range at the par-five fifth hole, it was possible to feel the heart of this tournament begin to beat a little faster.
It was wet. It was really wet. But it was also flat and calm and Hoylake’s greens were increasingly receptive. Was this course by the Dee Estuary about to yield in a fashion similar to the way it had in the face of Jon Rahm’s onslaught in the third round?
For a brief period, it seemed possible. With Harman starting uncertainly behind him, McIlroy had moved, almost in an instant, to six under par.
Another stretch further into the red and we would have at least a hint of something quite special on the horizon. But, as has increasingly come to be the case for McIlroy in majors, the 34-year-old could not quite get there and, on reflection, the wind disappeared marginally from his sails in the time it took him to play the ninth and 10th holes.
His tee shot on the par-three ninth was his best iron shot of the day; a tracer that dropped eight feet from the hole and stayed there. It left him with a birdie putt half the membership of the Royal Liverpool club would have fancied themselves to make.
But McIlroy pulled his putt left and, when his approach to the difficult 10th spun off the side of the green, he failed to save his par and that left him on five under for the championship when he could easily have been two shots better off.
McIlroy could not match Harman’s metronomic consistency throughout the tournament
It was the American’s first major win, as he saw off pressure from the sport’s biggest names
That wasn’t quite it for Europe’s most acclaimed golfer. A superb birdie at the 14th raised his hopes marginally once more but when he failed to convert a putt of similar length on the next green, his outside tilt at a repeat of his 2014 triumph here was pretty much over.
It had been quite a journey once again, one spent carrying the hopes of a continent on his shoulders. Despite the weather and his slim chances, they were six deep behind the ropes whenever he came bouncing by.
When he emerged from a toilet at the side of the 13th green, he received an enormous cheer. What did they think? That he wasn’t going to come out again?
And this is the thing about McIlroy. Despite the nine years since his last major win, he remains a golfer who continues to threaten a leap to the next level of greatness and this is why we still come back to watch him and why we continue to invest so much hope in him.
There has been little wrong with his game this week. Maybe the three makeable putts he missed at the back end of round three robbed him of the energy he needed to send him into Sunday’s conclusion with a little more fire in his eyes.
Does his putting still occasionally appear less reliable than it might do when it really matters? In all honestly, it does. Equally, it was a surprise to see him keep the driver in his bag on some holes as his need became increasingly desperate here.
‘I was very reluctant to hit the driver because the club face gets wet and the ball can go anywhere,’ he explained afterwards.
McIlroy will now enter his 10th year without winning a major but continues to flirt with greatness
‘So I sort of had to lay back off tees and try to play as conservatively and as smart as possible. But it’s a solid performance. I improved on my score every day. I missed a few putts yesterday but I felt like I putted a bit better today.
‘I needed to go out and shoot something like 63 or 64 but that’s really hard to do in those conditions.’
McIlroy agreed to take just four questions afterwards. He may well argue that’s because he’s heard most of them before.
On the topic of the day, he insisted his major record doesn’t bother him but it’s hard to believe that. Another major season has passed and still he cannot find the key to that particular door.