The Open: Rory McIlroy's Scottish Open win heightens excitement at Hoylake

Rory McIlroy's thrilling Genesis Scottish Open win lit the touch paper on an already eagerly anticipated countdown to the Open Championship at Royal Liverpool.

The Northern Irishman's gutsy victory, his first in Scotland, stokes expectation as he heads to the venue where, in 2014, he won his lone Claret Jug to date.

Whether he can end his nine-year drought in grand slam tournaments this week becomes the lead item on the Open agenda, but is by no means the only intriguing question posed by the final men's major of the year.

At this most turbulent time for men's golf, will the breakaway LIV tour have cause to celebrate, with Cameron Smith looking in the mood to become the first player to successfully defend an Open title since Padraig Harrington in 2008?

Or could another LIV recruit, US PGA champion Brooks Koepka, add a second major title this year? Both he and Smith are huge threats on the Wirral links, a stretch of historic golf land that has a happy knack of identifying great victors.

McIlroy succeeded Tiger Woods as a Hoylake winner. His 2006 victory was his third and last Open title and one of the great ball striking performances when, on parched fairways, he famously used his driver only once in 72 holes.

Other Hoylake winners include greats such as Harold Hilton, Walter Hagen and Bobby Jones. In 1947 Fred Daly set the template for fellow Northern Irishman, McIlroy.

So is this the week when the 34-year old lands his second Open, fifth major and ends what has become an agonising drought?

We have been here before, in terms of expectation. Many times.

On the plus side McIlroy is clearly in excellent form, beating a high quality field wire-to-wire in classic links weather conditions last week.

He knows how to win back-to-back as well - his last major, the 2014 US PGA followed a World Golf Championships success the previous week.

But that was in the most glorious summer of his career when he was an undisputed world beater by rocketing to the top of the rankings with consecutive wins at Hoylake, Firestone and then Valhalla.

Back then talk of double digit major wins seemed entirely plausible. But the intervening period has been littered with so many near misses, including last month's runner-up finish to Wyndham Clark at the US Open.

Like last year at St Andrews, McIlroy reeled off an exhibition of ball striking in Los Angeles, hitting fairways and greens but not with killer proximity to pins. He could not collect the birdies he needed and in those instances Smith and Clark were able to move clear.

There was a time when it was enough to hold steady on the final day of majors. The rest would crumble leaving the likes of Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson and Sir Nick Faldo clutching the trophy because they had made fewest errors.

It seems to take more these days, such is the strength in depth and the forgiving nature of modern club technology. Players are conditioned to go for it and seize the moment in the way Smith did by coming home in 30 on the Old Course 12 months ago.

"The difference when you are winning those tournaments is that you are not looking over your shoulder," Harrington observed.

"If you believe you can win with your B game, your A game turns up. If you think you need your A game, your B game turns up, that's the nature of golf."

Harrington added: "I think with Nicklaus, because he believed that, he could hit all the great shots when he needed to hit them. Tiger was a bit like that, too.

"Tiger got quite conservative at times and the worst thing you could do with Tiger was push him. I used to say, 'I know he's called Tiger, but you don't want to poke the bear!' Nicklaus was the same. Riling them up just meant they hit better shots."

It is this sort of major mindset McIlroy will need to maintain the momentum generated by the birdie-birdie finish that yielded the Scottish title.

His nerveless and technically brilliant 202-yard two-iron to the last at the Renaissance Club was one of the shots of the year, but would be eclipsed by anything that helps him end his current barren major run.

The Ulsterman's woes are nothing compared with England's dearth of Open success. It is now 31 years since Faldo lifted the Claret Jug for the third time - no Englishman has done it since.

Tommy Fleetwood and Tyrrell Hatton are the most likely candidates. Hatton will need to control his emotions and find a way to avoid playing himself out of the event in the early stages - something that happens too frequently at majors for a player of his talents.

Fleetwood will want to ride the huge support he will generate before the sell out crowd of 260,000. "It's a home Open for me, the north west is where I'm from," the runner-up to Shane Lowry at Portrush in 2019 told BBC Sport.

"So it means a lot; it's got a lot of sentiment for me. I'm excited to play in front of the crowds and whenever the Open comes around I'm so excited to play."

And let's not forget MacIntyre, who showed just how talented he is with his closing 64 amid howling winds in his native Scotland last week. Can the 26-year old ride the wave this week?

The course itself will also be massive talking point with its new short par-three, which will play as the 17th under the Open configuration.

At 136 yards it is the shortest hole on the course, but with the capacity to make or break a title challenge. Find the green on "Little Eye" and you have a good look at birdie.

But miss the putting surface at your peril.

Players will hit to the raised green, which offers a spectacular infinity type view over the Dee estuary. They will be more concerned with the dramatic fall offs into severely penal bunkers and sandy waste areas that surround the hole.

The 17th will be one of the biggest talking points of the week and not every player will be a fan of the new hole, which has already divided opinion among the Royal Liverpool membership.

What it helps guarantee is a volatile closing stretch where there is plenty of scope for significant shifts on the leaderboard. The 15th (which was the 16th in 2014) is a gettable par-five, despite stretching to 620 yards and the 16th is a demanding par four.

Then comes the potentially controversial new hole before an extended closing par five where scores could easily range from eagle to double bogey. It has been lengthened to 609 yards and competitors will be wary of going with driver due to internal out of bounds down the right.

But if eagle is needed to have a chance come Sunday night, will fortune favour a brave choice to go with the big stick?

So many questions, and surely plenty of fireworks as they are answered.