Rory McIlroy couldn’t wait to tee it up at home in Northern Ireland on Monday, hitting Royal Portrush for an early practice round just hours after his runner-up finish at the Scottish Open.
The Holywood native was off at 7:00 a.m. local time – over 90 minutes before any other player – to get his first look at the course since he missed the cut at the 2019 Open Championship.
McIlroy – who famously broke the course record at Portrush as a 16-year-old – hit his opening shot out of bounds in 2019 and trudged along to a first-round 79 before rebounding with an electric 65 in Round 2. That push ultimately fell one shot of the cutline, but the chase captivated the crowd.
The newly crowned Masters champion discussed that experience Monday when meeting with the media and pointed to some lessons he learned.
“You get to an Open, it’s a major championship, everything that comes along with it, and I just think that that feeling, the walk to the first tee and then that ovation, I was still a little surprised and a little taken aback. Like, geez, these people really want me to win,” McIlroy said. “I think that brought its own sort of pressure and more internally from myself, and not really wanting to let people down.
“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.”
While McIlroy left Portrush full of disappointment, he returns having become just the sixth man to complete the greatest achievement in professional golf – the career grand slam.
His Masters win capped an incredible start to the 2025 season, with victories at Pebble Beach and TPC Sawgrass also on the resume. However, since claiming the green jacket, McIlroy has struggled to find the same motivation with his career Mona Lisa complete.
“I think everyone could see over the last couple of months how I struggled with that. I’ve done something that I’ve told everyone that I wanted to do, but then it’s like I still feel like I have a lot more to give,” he said. “I’ve alluded to this, but I probably just didn’t give myself enough time to let it all sink in. But that’s the nature of professional golf. They do a very good job of keeping you on the hamster wheel, and you feel like it’s hard to get off at times.”
Should McIlroy triumph at Portrush this week, he’d become just the 15th man to win at least six major championships.
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