Rory McIlroy has promised to revel in the Northern Irish love during the Open Championship this week, with the 36-year-old also warning fellow competitors that he has regained focus after claiming the Masters in April. “The story certainly isn’t over,” he insisted.
McIlroy has returned to Royal Portrush for the first time since 2019, when he admitted the scale of ovation on the Open’s first tee contributed to him whacking his ball out of bounds. He later missed the cut.
Attention in the coming days promises to be even more intense, given his Masters win meant he became only the sixth golfer in history to complete a career grand slam.
“I think in ’19 I probably tried to isolate,” McIlroy said on Monday. “I think it’s better for everyone if I embrace it. I think it’s better for me.
“It’s nice to be able to accept adulation, even though I struggle with it at times. But it’s also nice for the person that is seeing you for the first time in a few years. It just makes for a better interaction and not trying to hide away from it.
“I think it’s more of, embrace everything that’s going to come my way this week and not try to shy away from it or hide away from it. I think that’ll make for a better experience for everyone involved.”
McIlroy was asked unsurprisingly to reflect on the first hole, six years ago, where he slumped to a quadruple‑bogey eight. He said: “The walk to the first tee and then that ovation, I was a little surprised and a little taken aback, like: ‘Geez, these people really want me to win.’ I think that brought its own sort of pressure and more internally from myself, not really wanting to let people down. It’s just something I didn’t mentally prepare for that day or that week.
“I learned pretty quickly that one of my challenges, especially in a week like this, is controlling myself and controlling that battle. I talked about it at the Masters on that last day. The battle on that last day wasn’t with Augusta National. It wasn’t with Bryson DeChambeau. It wasn’t with Justin Rose. The battle that day was with myself.”
It certainly appears as if McIlroy has found an appropriate level of motivation. After only four hours of sleep, he played 18 Portrush holes first thing on Monday morning. McIlroy openly challenged the sense he will compete in the 153rd Open without any pressure, an event he had circled on the calendar at the start of 2025.
“I’ve done something that I’ve told everyone that I wanted to do,” McIlroy said. “But I still feels like I have a lot more to give. Anyone that sits up here at this table, we’re all competitors. We all want to do better. We all think we can just get a little bit extra out of what we have.
The BBC has secured a last-minute deal to show an early evening highlights programme from The Open Championship in Portrush this week.
The Guardian has learned that the R&A has agreed a new three-year deal with the BBC for highlights for the Open, which also covers the women’s Championship, starting with the 2025 edition at Royal Porthcawl at the end of the month.
The BBC’s late move comes as a surprise and is a boost for the R&A and golf fans, as the corporation has shown little interest in the sport in recent years. A long-term contract for live rights to the Open was terminated a year early by the BBC in 2016, with Sky Sports taking over live coverage, and while they have shown highlights since then they had opted not to renew a contract that expired last year.
The Rory McIlroy factor may have played a role in the BBC’s decision to make a late bid, with the reigning Masters champion playing on his home course in Northern Ireland likely to boost interest amongst casual fans. BBC Sport sources have expressed the belief that they made an error of judgment in not attempting to show highlights of the Masters this year, with coverage of McIlroy’s triumph at Augusta only available to viewers with Sky Sports.
The Open is a more attractive property for the BBC however, due to the Championship’s earlier finishing times in this country, which should deliver a bigger audience. As a result this week’s highlights programmes are due to be shown at 9pm on Thursday and Friday before starting at 10pm on Saturday and Sunday.
The R&A and BBC did not comment, but an announcement is expected in the next few days. Matt Hughes
“It’s been an amazing year. The fact that I’m here at Portrush with the Green Jacket, having completed that lifelong dream, I want to do my best this week to enjoy everything that comes my way and enjoy the reaction of the fans and enjoy being in front of them and playing in front of them. But at the same time, I want to win this golf tournament and I feel like I’m very capable of doing that.
“I try to go about my business. I try to give the best of myself every time I’m out there. It’s amounted to some pretty nice things so far. I still feel like there’s a lot left in there.”
