After the slam in Georgia, Rory targets Open redemption on home soil
Rory McIlroy already has everything he wants from golf.
His dream was to be the best player in the game, which he fulfilled long ago by reaching No. 1 in the world nine times. The tallest mountain took 11 years to climb, and this was truly rarefied air when McIlroy won the Masters in April to complete the career Grand Slam.
So joyous was that moment for McIlroy that he figured anything else he achieved in his career would be gravy.
“That very well could be the highlight of my career,” McIlroy said of his Masters green jacket and all that came with it.
There very well could be one more—golf’s oldest trophy on McIlroy’s home soil. The 153rd edition of the British Open returns to Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland starting July 17.
There might not be a better way for McIlroy to conclude a most unforgettable season.
Unlike the Masters at Augusta National, where he returned every April, chances to win a major on home soil don’t come along very often for McIlroy. Irish eyes were on McIlroy in 2019 at Royal Portrush, where he hit his opening tee shot out-of-bounds and saw his spirited rally to make the cut fall just short.
For McIlroy, this is no ordinary British Open.
“If venues in golf matter to you, it maybe puts a little bit more pressure on you,” he said.
From the emotional side of it, he thought about Novak Djokovic winning Olympic gold in tennis last year in what he knew would be his final chance. That was about timing. This is location, playing before the largest crowd to see golf on the Emerald Isle, celebrating the sixth and most recent winner of the career Grand Slam, and high hopes for their favorite son in golf.
“You think about it, and you can’t pretend that it’s not there,” McIlroy said. “But when you are on the golf course, you just have to go out there and play as if you’re not playing at home, and just play as if it’s another golf tournament.
“But yeah, it obviously is a little more,” he said. “It has a little more emphasis. There’s something extra there.”
McIlroy has a score to settle from the last one at Royal Portrush. So much hype, so many expectations, and he had a quadruple-bogey 8 on his card after one hole. He shot 79, and nearly recovered until missing a birdie on his last hole for a 65 to miss the cut by a single shot.
The pressure doesn’t go away, but Adam Scott senses something different, a comfort that a Masters green jacket brings McIlroy.
“There’s no doubt he knows what is hoped for him,” Scott said. “Having won the career slam earlier this year, I think he goes in—even with all that expectation—with some freedom and probably a calmness.
“I imagine he’ll have a much more sense of calmness and be able to enjoy it, which would lead to good golf—which is bad for all of us.”
