Scottish Open 2023: Will Rory McIlroy rekindle major challenge at The Renaissance?
- Published
Rory McIlroy looked to be enjoying Wednesday's pro-am at The Renaissance Club
The Scottish Open |
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Date: 13-16 July Venue: The Renaissance Club, North Berwick |
Coverage: Live text coverage of final two rounds on BBC Sport website and highlights on BBC Two. |
When Rory McIlroy went wire-to-wire to win The Open Championship at Hoylake in 2014, he was flawless and flamboyant and 25 years old.
On wide and soft fairways, he routinely drove it 340 yards down the middle, putted like a king and became the third youngest player in history to win three legs of the Grand Slam, only Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods ahead of him.
This was a freewheeling, untouchable McIlroy who was suing and being sued by his former agent and yet it made no difference to him. A player who only a few months before had broken off his engagement with the tennis player Caroline Wozniacki, making bits of the talk that the turbulence might impact on his golf.
When the pack got closer to him on Saturday, the Northern Irishman stuck them with two eagles in his last three holes to set himself up for a successful Sunday. Then he won the US PGA at Valhalla a month later.
Four majors in the bag, one off Seve Ballesteros, two off Nick Faldo. The speculation at the time was not if, but when, he would win the Masters and complete the Slam. Many thought he'd get it done at 26, 27 - at a push, 28 for sure.
He's now 34 and stuck - if you can be stuck - on a still handsome total of four majors. Only 20 players in the history of the game have more majors and only two of them are current - one of them is Phil Mickelson, who's done; the other is Brooks Koepka, who's far from done.
If off-course craziness accompanied his march on Hoylake then there's more of it this time.
On Tuesday, in a United States Senate hearing in Washington on the merger of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) with the PGA Tour, it emerged that McIlroy (and Woods) had been talked about as potential owners of LIV golf teams in the new venture.
Given that McIlroy (and Woods) have led the way on the anti-LIV side, it was a surreal and preposterous suggestion, one that McIlroy would have heard about for the first time as he was preparing for the Scottish Open.
McIlroy is playing in East Lothian this week. Where better to prepare for another pursuit of a fifth major - and a first in almost nine years - than at a place called The Renaissance. Where better to go next than to Hoylake, a track that will instil in him a warm glow after his brilliance of 2014.
This week and next the galleries will follow him like disciples, hoping against hope that this is the summer his barren run ends.
His consistency since winning at Valhalla has been extraordinary. He has finished in the top 10 in majors on 19 occasions post that US PGA. Overall, he has at least one top-10 finish in a major for 15 straight years. He sits on 27 top 10s - more than Nick Faldo and Seve and Bernhard Langer.
McIlroy has tried everything there is to try to get to five victories. He's tried talking effusively pre-majors and has tried talking sparingly, as he has done at The Renaissance this week.
He has gone in with high expectations and modest expectations. He has prepared on full links, links-like (Renaissance again) and parkland courses. He has played a run of tournaments leading up to the majors and he's given himself time off. He's embraced the pressure and has played it down.
Small margins among mounting frustrations
McIlroy has won nearly 20 tournaments since he last won a major, has reached world number one, has lorded it over the game, but he hasn't got over the line on the biggest days.
He is convinced that if he keeps putting himself into contention then he'll eventually win and he's probably right. The quality of his game is beyond question and his repeated assertion that the margins in these things are small is borne out by his own frustrating experiences.
A few errant drives, a few sloppy wedges, some well-struck putts that refuse to fall - and elsewhere, guys going on mega-charges or just staying in the fight more effectively. Sundays at the majors have been tortuous for too long for McIlroy.
It's ludicrous that such a great player has gone this long without winning one of the sport's biggies, a run during which Zach Johnson has won The Open at 39, Henrik Stenson taking it at 40, Woods winning the Masters at 43 (the second-oldest man to secure a Green Jacket) and Phil Mickelson winning the US PGA at 50 (the oldest winner of a major - ever)
If you look through McIlroy's Sunday interview transcripts since 2014, the most oft-repeated phrase is "wasted opportunity" or a variation on the theme. In the 2018 Masters, he shot 65 on Saturday to lie three behind the leader overnight - then shot 74 on Sunday, the worst closing round of the top-16.
Rory McIlroy was on top of the world when lifting the Claret Jug at Hoylake in 2014
In the 2019 US Open at Pebble Beach, he was five shots behind leader Gary Woodland after 54 holes. That's not insurmountable for a player of McIlroy's excellence. He double-bogeyed the second hole on Sunday and the lights went out.
At Winged Foot a year later, he was not far off after three rounds but shot 75 on Sunday, the joint-worst score of the top 19. In 2021 at Torrey Pines, he was two strokes behind the leaders with one round to play, then shot 73, the worst round among the top 12. "I was right in the thick of things," he said. "It was a great opportunity that I didn't take."
We're talking here about mistakes that turn birdies into pars and pars into bogeys. Golf is full of killers who are ready to pounce on any weakness and McIlroy has shown too much of it. He knows that better than anybody. He used to be one of those killers.
Shooting 70, and losing the 2023 US Open at the Los Angeles Country Club by a shot to Wyndham Clark, was excruciating. On the first page of the leaderboard on Sunday there was a 63, two 65s and some 67s.
McIlroy was nowhere near that level on the day. He finished second. "Another top five in a major, I guess it doesn't really mean anything," he said later.
He should there or thereabouts again
These crossbar moments are spread across all four majors. St Andrews in 2022 was like the LACC in 2023. "The putter went cold. It's one I feel I let slip away." McIlroy and Viktor Hovland were out in the last group on Sunday and were the only two players in the top 15 to shoot in the 70s. Cam Smith won the Claret Jug with a 64.
The 2022 US PGA at Southern Hills was another one. McIlroy started his final round in sensational style with four birdies in his first five holes. He was on four under. As it turned out, five under would have got him into a play-off, but he stalled and then went backwards. Another top 10, another case of what-might-have-been. Sunday misery.
McIlroy said something interesting at the Masters this year. "I go to the second tee on Friday and I see I'm already 10 back of Brooks (Koepka), or whatever. So then I'm thinking, 'oh jeez, I have no chance of winning' and things crumble. It's just being a bit mentally fragile because you're so focused on the one thing you're trying to do when, in essence, you just need to play a golf tournament and see where the chips fall at the end of the week."
Admitting defeat after one hole of his second round? The psychology of golf is a compelling thing and it's an area he needs to improve on. Controlling his ball is one thing. Controlling his mind is another.
McIlroy's chase for a fifth title is now the most absorbing thing in the sport. Can he get his head right, can he get his game in tune down the stretch? By the law of his averages, he will be there or thereabouts again on Sunday.
It's why the galleries will follow him all over The Renaissance and why his name will ring out above all others at Hoylake. In winning in 2014, he had no fear, no hesitation. It's time that imperious version of himself strode around the place like he owned it - and got it done again.