Rory McIlroy happy where his game is at ahead of Open Championship tilt
McIlroy was looking to become the first player to win the Masters and Scottish Open in the same season but finished two shots behind world number 158 Gotterup at the Renaissance Club, tied with Marco Penge for second place.
The 36-year-old has struggled to find his best form after completing the career grand slam at the Masters in April, and said in June he had not known how hard it would be to stay motivated.
However, after a strong performance in North Berwick, the five-time major champion said he was now ready to fully focus on the final major of the year.
"I'm really happy with where everything is," McIlroy, who won the Open in 2014, told reporters.
"Looking forward to getting to Portrush and getting out onto the golf course and just turning my attention to that.
"I'm really happy with where my game is, the way I played over the weekend, the shots that I hit, how I controlled my ball flight.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Daily Mirror
9 hours ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
Padraig Harrington handed major Open Championship honour in Portrush
Padraig Harrington will hit the first tee shot of The Open in Portrush on Thursday morning. Harrington, 53, will start the fourth and final major championship of the year at 6.35am, following in the footsteps of Darren Clarke, who hit the first shot at the county Antrim venue six years ago. The Dubliner, who is a three-time major champion and won The Open twice, is one of five Irish golfers in the field with fellow Open winners Clarke, Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry, as well as Tom McKibbin. He is the last player to win the Claret Jug in successive years, after beating Sergio Garcia in a play-off to win The 136th Open at Carnoustie in 2007 and then overhauling Greg Norman to defend his title at Royal Birkdale a year later. Harrington was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame last year. Harrington also recently won the US Senior Open for the second time. The rest of the draw for the first and second rounds will take place at 2pm on Tuesday.
The 42
10 hours ago
- The 42
Shane Lowry learning to embrace the struggle that paved the way to his first Open triumph
IT'S AN IMAGE easily summoned: Shane Lowry, Claret Jug in hand, eyes shimmering behind a curtain of rain. And like any photograph of a great triumph, its struggles have been airbrushed out. A year earlier, Lowry was weeping very different tears. He sat alone in his car after the first round of the Open Championship in Carnoustie, an opening-round 74 leaving him looking over his shoulder rather than up the leaderboard. It would be a fifth missed cut in a year that lacked a single top-10 along with an invite to the Masters. Lowry split from his caddie Dermot Byrne that same day: if a rupture was inevitable then its timing was indecently hasty. His coach Neil Manchip took the bag for Friday's round, after which he went home early and put an SOS call into his brother Alan for some temp work. 'Golf wasn't my friend at the time', reflected Lowry a year later. 'It was something that became very stressful and it was weighing on me and I just didn't like doing it.' The awful thing about golf is its volatility but that can be the best thing about it too. A year later, Lowry stepped off the 17th tee of the third round of the Open Championship and turned to his new caddie, Bo Martin and said, 'Bo, whatever happens, we have to enjoy this next 20 minutes or so.' Lowry was playing like he was blessed with some kind of divine fire. He had birdied seven of his last 14 holes to roar clear of the pack, and bring the crowds at Royal Portrush into a kind of fervour. He would birdie 17 too on his way to a third-round 63 that meant he had effectively won the Open. The complication was that he had to go out on Sunday to not lose it. He hardly slept, but woke up to hang grimly on through the absurd rain. When his tee shot on 17 found the fairway, he looked to the sky and puffed out his cheeks: he would be the Open champion. The 18th fairway thus became a giddy procession, as Lowry slowed his pace to find familiar faces around him while thousands more charged behind him, waving tricolours and chanting ole, ole. Advertisement 'What I did was very special', says Lowry today, 'and to walk down the 18th hole with a six-shot lead, I'm probably never going to do that again, so I'm not going to try and replicate that this week.' So, to this week. 'I feel like I'm a better golfer than I was in 2019″, he says. 'I am a better golfer than I was in 2019. But it doesn't mean I'm going to go out and win by seven this year instead of six. It's just golf, that's the way it is. As a golfer, you always have to look at it as the glass is always half-full. You can't look at it any other way.' Along with becoming one of the most consistent players on the PGA Tour, Lowry has breached the top-10 in the world rankings, and these facts, along with the status bestowed by his Claret Jug, have made him a headline name in the US. But while his glass is half-full, he has a few sideline bristles and frustrations all the same. The more attention Lowry has garnered in America, the more he chafes as that coverage's more rudimentary aspects; impressions of him that are always at their most Carroll's Gift Stores whenever he's playing in Ireland. The very first question of his press conference at Portrush today, for instance, asked him to reflect on how he celebrated his 2019 triumph. Lowry flicked a look at the row of Irish journalists in front of him and said, 'Interesting first question, isn't it? Here to talk about golf and all anyone wants to talk about is drinking.' Shortly after, a journalist with whom Lowry has a good relationship asked him if he was fed up of this impression of him as a pint-swilling craic merchant. (Note: not a verbatim edition of the question.) 'Look, I'll let people believe what they want to believe and I kind of do my own thing', replied Lowry. 'The people close to me know what I'm like.' Of greater concern is the finishing ability he showcased here six years ago has deserted him. Exclude the team event Zurich Classic and his sole tournament win since the Open came at Wentworth in 2022, while he has recently been stuck in a rut at the majors. Having seen opportunities to win at last year's PGA and Open slide by, he turned a promising Masters Saturday position into a miserable Sunday 81, and he then missed the cut at both the PGA and the US Open. At Quail Hollow he was heard slamming the turf yelling 'F**k this place', while at Oakmont he bogeyed a par-five and walked off the green muttering 'F**k this place, f**k this place.' Portrush should at least stall that trend. 'As my own mental game regards that, I've had a couple of episodes this year, but golf is hard at this level', says Lowry, slightly abashed, when asked a general question about his mental game. 'Since 2019, apart from the Covid year, I feel like my golf has been okay', he continues, 'It's been very consistent. Obviously I've not won as much as I would have liked, but it's hard to win out there. You just need to keep going with day-to-day, week-to-week, and give yourself the best chances.' There has been another caddie change too, and Lowry is now working with Darren Reynolds, with Bo Martin now carrying Min Woo Lee's bag. In a recent video with the R&A reliving that glorious walk down 18 in 2019, he revealed he told Martin that he loved him, before adding with a laugh that he's not so sure he will loves him now. During the course of his press conference, Lowry revealed the depths of that struggle to his 2019 triumph, while also giving the impression of a golfer learning to embrace that struggle. 'Sometimes when everything is going really well, I get complacent. Then all of a sudden, before I know it, I'm like three-over through five and start to have a panic because I feel like I'm going to do well. 'I feel like when things are not going well I think is when I'm at my best, or when I don't feel like things are going well, like go back to 2019 here, I had a meltdown on the Wednesday because I thought I wasn't going to go out and play well, but then that focuses me in a little bit more. 'If I can keep my complacency away and my expectation down, that's when I'm at my best.' Rather than play the Scottish Open last week, Lowry has spent the last fortnight touring Ireland, playing all of Portmarnock, The Island, Baltray, Waterville, Hogs Head and Adare Manor beneath the blazing summer sun. This is anyone's idea of a worthwhile break, though that creates one small problem. Where's the struggle? 'I've had a great week. I've had a great week of practice. I just need to play shit for the next couple of days, and I'll be all right.'
Irish Examiner
11 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
Rory McIlroy more at peace with his mind and his game on return to Royal Portrush
It's become de rigeur to parse every syllable, every tilt of the head and shrug of the shoulders, when Rory McIlroy holds court. Somehow, this hasn't changed much, if at all, since he completed his career Grand Slam at Augusta in April. The 36-year-old has struggled to centre himself since achieving that lifetime ambition at the Masters and, of course, his decision to swerve more than a few media duties since sent the association of amateur psychologists and the body language industry into tailspins. We'll keep the pop psychology short here. McIlroy exuded a sense of peace on Monday afternoon. He chuckled a few times and folded his arms loosely as he gave his usual erudite and considered takes on the world of Rory and the universe of opinions and oceans of fascination that whirl about it. The pressure is off, one questioner said breezily. 'Is it?' McIlroy laughed. 'Is the pressure off?' This ease was already apparent on the course earlier in the morning when, with golf clubs around the province providing different stewards on every hole, he delighted in seeing so many familiar faces on what is a rare competitive outing for him in these parts. Former Ireland and British and Irish Lions legend Mike Gibson was among the other blasts from the past to sidle up and spend a brief moment with a man whose only step back from it all came when he was asked about being Ulster's best ever sportsperson. So much of Monday's media spooled back on the past. How could it not? He was asked again about setting the course record 61 for these Dunluce Links as a 16-year old back in 2006 and, inevitably, of his memories from 2019 when he hit THAT tee shot, an opening quadruple bogey, carded a 79 and ultimately missed the cut. He had absorbed this brand of Ulster love before, at Irish Opens here in Portrush, in Royal County Down and at Portstewart, but this was worship inflated again by a fervent expectation and a yearning that ultimately worked against him. That Thursday exists as a blur in his mind now but he does remember the roar of the crowd when he hit a six-iron to the 14th green on day two when chasing a score that might curb the worst of his opening 79 and give him a shot at the weekend. All that is informing his approach this week. 'I guess it's just something I didn't mentally prepare for that day or that week, but I learned pretty quickly that one of my challenges, especially in a week like this, is controlling myself and controlling that battle. 'I talked about it at the Masters on that last day. The battle on that last day wasn't with Augusta National. It wasn't with Bryson [DeChambeau]. It wasn't with Justin Rose. The battle that day was with myself. 'Whenever you get put in environments like that, that's basically what it is. It's you trying to overcome your mind and trying to give yourself that clarity to give yourself the best chance to put together a really good performance.' There's no doubt but that McIlroy put far too much pressure on himself six years ago. Shane Lowry shared here how his friend had declared that 2019 Open to be the biggest tournament he would likely ever play in the days beforehand. But the past can be overplayed. McIlroy, when asked to go back over that 61 in '06, framed it in the context of how TrackMans weren't even a thing back then, and added that the very course itself has been altered significantly since. Time moves on, so has he. Ultimately, this is all academic, conjecture and fluff designed to keep us occupied before the first tee on Thursday. More integral to the question as to what McIlroy might do at an Open here second time around is his current form. Finishing joint second at the Genesis Scottish Open reaffirmed a return to something approaching his best when paired with his previous effort in ending in a tie for sixth at the Travelers Championship in late June. And his readiness was obvious when landing in Portrush at 1am on Monday so that he could take to the course at 7am on the back of just four hours sleep in and get some prep in before the circus that is The Open got into full swing. 'I'm certainly encouraged by how I've played the last two starts, especially last week in Scotland. I think the two weeks off after the Travelers just to reset, to get over here, a bit of a change of scenery, has been really nice. 'When I was looking at the calendar for 2025, this was the tournament that was probably, I don't know, circled, even more so than the Masters for different reasons. It's lovely to be coming in here already with a major and everything else that's happened this year. 'I'm excited with where my game is. I felt like I showed some really good signs last week. I feel like I'm in a good spot and had… Not that last week was a pure preparation week, but I definitely feel like it put me in a good spot heading into here.'
