Rory McIlroy came to Shinnecock ready to battle the brutal winds and fast greens for a US Open title and departed Sunday a clearly beaten golfer.
"I think it won the battle over me at this point," McIlroy said after firing his second three-over 73 of the weekend to finish on six-over 286.
World No 2 McIlroy, a six-time major winner from Northern Ireland, made five bogeys on Saturday's back nine and four more on the front nine in Sunday's final round.
"Looking back on the entire week, I'll obviously rue the back nine yesterday," he said. "I got myself to two-under par for the tournament after nine.
"Then the wheels came off and played a really bad back nine. I sort of shot myself out of the tournament then. Obviously was really disappointed coming away from the course last night."
Three bogeys in his first five holes Sunday had McIlroy racing for the exits as best he could.
"You try to come out here today positive and you try to muster up the energy to put a good one in there, but a couple of bogeys on the front nine, I was just trying to race my way to the 18th green," McIlroy admitted.
He will be making his way to Europe and home next for July's British Open.
"It's my favourite time of the year to go back home and play, play the Open and I get to spend a bit of time back there," McIlroy said.
"This was not too dissimilar to an Open Championship in terms of how the golf course started to play over the weekend, but a bit of links golf over the next couple weeks will be nice."