OAKMONT, Pa. – Rory McIlroy finally found a little something at the U.S. Open, and now he’ll hope it creates a flicker of major momentum as he heads home next month.

McIlroy shot a 3-under 67 in the final round at Oakmont Country Club, his best score of the week by five shots and one that left the 2011 winner at 7 over for the week. After teetering around the cut line for much of the first 36 holes, he sorted out his persistent driver woes and found 11 of 14 fairways in the final round.

“After the way I drove it today, I’d say I finished in the top five in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee,” McIlroy said. “I feel like I’ve got a really good feeling in my swing with the driver, which was great. Hopefully, I can continue that on into next week.”

Next week means the Travelers Championship, where McIlroy will headline the field in the eighth and final Signature Event of the season. He’s also expecting to play the Genesis Scottish Open next month before turning his attention to a homecoming as The Open Championship returns to Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland.

McIlroy memorably missed the cut there six years ago, opening with a quadruple bogey on his first hole en route to a 79. The Ulsterman battled back with a second-round 65, only to miss the cut by a shot, and offered a handful of emotional interviews in the immediate aftermath.

“It will be amazing to go home and play in that atmosphere and see a lot of people that I still haven’t seen yet. I’m really looking forward to it,” he said. “Look, if I can’t get motivated to get up for an Open Championship at home, then I don’t know what can motivate me.”

McIlroy is still just two months removed from his watershed win at the Masters, but things have not gone according to plan in his five starts since leaving Augusta with the green jacket. His T7 finish at the Truist Championship remains his only top-10 result since, and he’ll fall short of that mark this week.

McIlroy will next make the short commute to TPC River Highlands, where he has never finished worse than T19 in five prior starts. But Sunday, he couldn’t keep his mind from drifting to the opportunity that awaits next month – both to go back home to Europe to coronate his Masters victory and to look to a course he grew up playing as the potential site of major win No. 6.

“Look, I climbed my Everest in April,” McIlroy said. “I think after you do something like that, you’ve got to make your way back down, and you’ve got to look for another mountain to climb. An Open at Portrush is certainly one of those.”