Rory McIlroy brings ‘carefree attitude’ to 151st British Open

HOYLAKE, England – If Rory McIlroy is feeling the weight of a nine-year Major championship drought, he is certainly playing it off well.

Fresh off a dramatic win at the Scottish Open,

the 34-year-old walked the course at Royal Liverpool in Hoylake, England on Monday, “refamiliarising” himself with the site of his lone British Open title in 2014.

“Regardless of what happened last week, I’m coming here to try to play a really good Major championship,” he told the Golf Channel. “I know my game holds up well in these sorts of tests. Obviously, I’ve got some really good memories of this place from nine years ago.”

That was McIlroy’s third career Major triumph at just 25. He would get another at the PGA Championship later that summer, with Jack Nicklaus predicting the Northern Irishman would ultimately win 15 in his career.

However, the Major well has run dry since then. McIlroy does have a trio of runner-up finishes in Majors over the past eight years – the British Open in 2018, the 2022 Masters and at the US Open at Los Angeles Country Club in June.

He followed that with tied-seventh at the Travelers Championship and Sunday’s birdie-birdie finish to snag the Scottish Open from Robert MacIntyre’s grasp. McIlroy arrived at Royal Liverpool riding a streak of six consecutive top-10 finishes and has climbed back to No. 2 in the world rankings.

McIlroy thought his chance of winning the Scottish Open was gone after missing a birdie putt on the 16th hole. But he rebounded with a birdie on No. 17 and then hit a two-iron from more than 200 yards to within 10 feet to set up the winning birdie at the final hole.

He said hitting those types of pressure shots in blustery conditions shows that his game is in excellent shape to make another run at snapping his Major drought.

“You could give me 100 golf balls and I wouldn’t get one as close as that,” He said of the two-iron shot. “I think that’s why my reaction was what it was. I looked at (caddie) Harry (Diamond) and said, ‘I can’t believe I just won this tournament – out of absolutely nowhere!’

“But it was really cool to be able to do it, and it was a special day. I think being able to get it done under those circumstances and in those conditions, that gives me a lot of confidence going forward.”

It completed the “British Isles triple” for McIlroy, who also won the Irish Open in 2016 to go along with the British Open in 2014.

He said after the disappointing runner-up finish in Los Angeles a month ago that he will keep showing up at Majors and that he is confident he will eventually capture another one. The stars would appear to be aligned for that to happen this week, but as he casually strolled Royal Liverpool, one would never know if that burden weighs on him.

“Just go out and play my golf and enjoy it. I think that’s always been the way that I’ve played my best golf – playing with a bit of a carefree attitude and enjoying the game for what it is,” he said.

“If those are my two goals for the week and I’m able to do that, I’m pretty sure the by-product is that I’ll be able to play some good golf.”

Off the course, McIlroy said on Sunday he was talking to Sergio Garcia again following the pair’s public fallout following the Spaniard’s move to LIV Golf.

He has been the most high-profile opponent of the Saudi-backed breakaway Tour and he said during last week’s Scottish Open: “If LIV Golf was the last place to play golf on earth I would retire.”

But at the US Open, McIlroy and Garcia rekindled their once close friendship, with the latter saying he had “gained a friend back” following a planned peace deal between the established US-based PGA Tour and LIV Golf.

McIlroy, when asked about the situation following his win at the Scottish Open for a 37th professional title, replied: “We’ve talked, which is a first step. There are things that we both think we probably could have done differently, and there’s a lot that’s went into it... It’s good that we’re at least talking again. I wouldn’t say we are all the way there, but it’s a good first step.” REUTERS, AFP