McIlroy facing another major emotional challenge as Portrush's latest Open finally kicks off

The 42

4 days ago

WELCOME TO NORTHERN Ireland, where Open Week has been delivering all of that which you might expect, even before the golf has got underway.
We have had an abrupt end to the summer by glowering and seditious skies.
We have had a classic bit of opportunistic price-gouging, with the Harbour Bar's Open Added Tax such that the Belfast Telegraph believe their £8 pint of Guinness is currently the most expensive jar of stout in all of Northern Ireland.
We have had the accommodation of a marching band, with Saturday's tee times to be brought forward for 15 minutes to ease the congestion exacerbated by the Sons of Ulster's 70-band parade.
And we have had the greatest player in the world infected by a bad dose of existential despair. Scottie Scheffler's meditations in the press room on Tuesday have proved to be the most interesting part of the week's build-up, as he admitted that the joy in success on the golf course is fleeting and ultimately unfulfilling.
'What's the point?', asked Scottie aloud to rows of journalists briefly fascinated but ultimately chilled by the implications of his Beckettian angst.
Beckett may have been primarily a cricket fan, but he would approve of the kind of strictly-controlled stage direction demanded of an Open venue by the Royal & Ancient. And, to be honest, everyone else should approve too.
For ultimately we also have a stunning theatre for championship golf, one kept looking lush by the spillings of rain and marries take-a-breath views with a hold-your-breath challenge.
The Open is back in Portrush after only six years primarily because of the number of eager punters they can layer along the fairways – more than 250,000 people will click between the gates this week – but this promises to be another week to make yourself giddy about the elemental genius of golf on this island and then make you lament the extent to which the professional game has been captured by obscenely wealthy parklands in America.
But that's only if you can take your eyes away from Rory McIlroy, as to suggest Rory has been the centre of attention this week is to assume there's attention being shared anywhere else, which is not a safe bet.
Dealing with that adulation's attendant pressure is what McIlroy failed to do in missing the cut in 2019, infamously hooking his tee shot left and out of bounds; his radar left askew by the emotional punch of the ovation that met him on the first tee.
He said this week he hadn't expected to be met with anything like this noise, and that he had not mentally prepared for its impact. The good news is he can't be surprised twice. In 2019 he said he 'isolated' himself away from the clamouring crowds, to the point he stayed well away from the course. This time, however, he is staying nearby, and has decided he is better to embrace the attention and its expectation.
It's a tentative kind of embrace, however: McIlroy snuck onto the property shortly after sunrise on Monday and Tuesday to steal a march on the madding crowds.
And as to whether this refreshed approach will yield different results? Well, he sent his tee shot on the first hole out of bounds during practice on Monday and Tuesday. Er, maybe best to get those swings out of the way.
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If McIlroy can deal with the emotional pressure – singular to him among the whole field – then he should contend, because his game looks to be in rude health. If his surly non-performance at the PGA Championship was the sit-down-in-the-shower-to-cry phase of his post-Masters hangover, then last Sunday's second-placed finish at the Scottish Open was the moment at which he finally kept his dinner down.
This was the first tournament at which he contended since the Masters, and McIlroy said afterwards that he felt his game is back to the level at which it was during the first fortnight of April. If he can tidy up his driving accuracy – he ranked 60th among the Scottish Open field for fairways found – and maintain his putting consistency on the slower greens of a links course, then he will contend to become the first man to win the Masters and the Open in the same year since Tiger Woods did so in 2005.
Shane Lowry. Ben Brady / INPHO Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO
Meanwhile, Shane Lowry had to clarify at one point during his Monday press conference that he's not actually the defending champion. But such is the lingering impact of his 2019 victory and the haste with which the R&A have returned to Portrush, it feels like he has only this week handed back the Claret Jug.
Lowry said this week he is a better golfer than he was six years ago – stats and rankings make this an indisputable claim – but he has too often struggled to show the kind of finishing prowess he showcased so gloriously in 2019. His consistency has also recently deserted him at the majors, missing the cut at the PGA Championship and the US Open.
Even if he can flip that form line, he has the issue of an in-form field. Jon Rahm appears to the be the consensus favourite in the media centre at least: he has won two Irish Opens – one of which was at the nearby Portstewart – and has been a consistent threat at all the majors this year. Scottie Scheffler is a relative novice at links golf but he nonetheless has the artistry to excel by the sea, while the actual defending champ – Xander Schauffele – has eased himself back into form just in time for his tilt to be the first back-to-back winner of the Claret Jug since Pádraig Harrington.
Harrington has been given the honour of hitting the first tee shot, a ceremonial role for a not-yet-ceremonial golfer. 'I don't want to be known as a ceremonial golfer', he says. 'I don't feel like I am at the moment, and I'm prepared to put that aside to have that honour.'
Harrington will play alongside Tom McKibbin, who is seeking to burnish his talent with a reputation to match. A member of Royal Portrush, the big-hitting McKibbin is one of the best drivers on LIV and if he can play it from the fairway, he can easily fulfil his target of a best major finish yet, which was a T41 at last year's US Open.
McKibbin has the benefit of familiarity with a course that will allow for compulsive viewing throughout the week, unlike the painfully one-note hosts of the two previous men's majors. Links golf is escape room golf: there's generally a route to safety, but you have to get creative in finding it.
All of McIlroy, Lowry, and McKibbin independently pointed to how well bunkered the course is, meaning players will have to carefully choose their club on every tee box. While finding the fairway is vital, this is not the bomb-and-gouge festival thrown every week by the PGA Tour.
Asked as to what makes this his favourite golf course, Harrington instantly pointed to its risk-reward element, saying no course on the Open rota throws up such variations in scoring on certain holes. The par-five seventh hole, for instance, yielded more eagles than any other in 2019, but it was on this very same hole that David Duval made a 14 during his opening round.
Shane Lowry provided an electric, irresistible finish here six years ago, and there's only one man who can possibly deliver anything greater on this Sunday. But even if Rory McIlroy cannot quite rise to meet the soaring moment, then we'll be satisfied with the rugged, sober star power of Royal Portrush itself.
Tips
Jon Rahm to win – 11/1
Russell Henley e/w – 60/1
Tom Kim e/w – 100/1
Selected tee times – Round 1
6:35 am | Padraig Harrington, Nicolai Hojgaard, Tom McKibbin
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7:52 am | Darren Clarke, Davis Riley, Lucas Herbert
9:58 am | Xander Schauffele, JJ Spaun, Jon Rahm
10:09 am | Shane Lowry, Collin Morikawa, Scottie Scheffler
2:48 pm | Robert MacIntyre, Bryson DeChambeau, Justin Rose
2:59 pm | Jordan Spieth, Ludvig Aberg, Viktor Hovland
3:10 pm | Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas, Tommy Fleetwood
Selected tee times – Round 2
9:47 am | Robert MacIntyre, Bryson DeChambeau, Justin Rose
9:58 am | Jordan Spieth, Ludvig Aberg, Viktor Hovland
10:09 am | Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas, Tommy Fleetwood
11:26 am | Padraig Harrington, Nicolai Hojgaard, Tom McKibbin
12:53 pm | Darren Clarke, Davis Riley, Lucas Herbert
2:59 pm | Xander Schauffele, JJ Spaun, Jon Rahm
3:10 pm | Shane Lowry, Collin Morikawa, Scottie Scheffler