Rory McIlroy rarely got to play in Northern Ireland as a pro before the 2019 Open Championship was staged at Royal Portrush Golf Club. He remembers the internal pressure when he arrived for his tee time that Thursday — the pressure of wanting to be the hero for his country.
It didn’t happen for McIlroy in 2019, but he has since put his major championship drought to bed and he will have a country behind him this week as the 153rd Open Championship returns to Portrush in County Antrim, Northern Ireland.
“I guess it’s just something I didn’t mentally prepare for that day or that week,” McIlroy said Monday. “But I learned pretty quickly that one of my challenges, especially in a week like this, is controlling myself and controlling that battle.”
McIlroy likened it to his long-sought Masters victory in April. He wasn’t battling his competitors or the golf course that Sunday, but rather himself. A wiser and more rejuvenated McIlroy is widely expected to contend this week, six years after he shot an opening-round 79 at Royal Portrush and missed the cut.
His competition, though, includes a litany of the best players from around the world, including World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, U.S. Open champion J.J. Spaun and defending champ Xander Schauffele.
Scheffler previewed the par-71, 7,381-yard course by pointing out the weather’s behavior will have a “pretty dramatic effect” on how Portrush plays, and the pot bunkers tend to funnel to the middle so awkward lies are rarer than at other links courses.
“I think it fits my strengths because I like to do things very creatively, and I think out here you kind of have to,” Scheffler said. “I think each year we come over, I start learning a bit more and more.”
Scheffler captured his third career major at the PGA Championship in May, while the most recent major champ is J.J. Spaun, who endured a brutally difficult course and a rainy weekend at Oakmont Country Club last month to win the U.S. Open at 1 under par.
Spaun was not a complete unknown before that victory, but for context, he had never qualified for the Open Championship until this year.
“I think that all I can do is kind of fall back on that experience and know that I’ve got it done (at the U.S. Open) at a really pivotal moment, probably in the worst weather of the week, and that I can pull it off kind of anywhere,” Spaun said.
World No. 3 Schauffele has yet to win a tournament since his victories at the 2024 PGA Championship and Open Championship, the latter thanks to a final-round 65 to win by two at Royal Troon.
Despite a disappointing season, he’s confident he can outduel anyone on the biggest stage.
“If I can get myself in the mix is when I think I would have an advantage. That’s where my biggest edge would be,” Schauffele said. “… I think the most fun and the biggest advantage I would have is coming down the stretch if I can get close to that lead.”
When McIlroy fell short in 2019, Shane Lowry grabbed the mantle and won his only major championship, galvanizing the Irish crowd behind him. His third-round 63 set the modern course record; McIlroy had shot a 61 as a 16-year-old before a full remodel.
“No matter what I done then, it doesn’t give me any God-given right to do anything special this week,” Lowry said. “I just need to get my head down on Thursday morning and get after it and see what happens.”
The field includes nine amateurs and 19 members of LIV Golf, including 52-year-old Englishman Lee Westwood, who got in through final qualifying. It is his first start in a major since the 2022 Open.
Also in the field is Chris Gotterup, who beat McIlroy by two strokes at the Genesis Scottish Open last Sunday to earn a berth into the field. It was Gotterup’s second PGA Tour win and vaulted him inside the top 50 in the world rankings.
–Field Level Media
