The Open: Rory McIlroy bids to roll back years at links where he made his name

For Rory McIlroy, Royal Portrush is awash with happy memories — and not just of his own golf.

Just an hour’s drive from the family home, from a young age he would be in the back seat of the family car, heading there to watch his father Gerry play. It was also the course where he announced himself to the golf world with a course-record round of 61 at the age of 16.

That round led to a congratulatory text from one of Northern Ireland’s other golfing sons, Darren Clarke, and a return there is a pertinent one for McIlroy, Clarke and Graeme McDowell, the most local of lads, born in Portrush nearly 40 years ago.

The bookmakers give Clarke and McDowell little chance of victory come Sunday, but McIlroy goes in as favourite to lift the Claret Jug.

“Whenever I look back at Royal Portrush, links golf and my development, I always think about that round,” said McIlroy, looking ahead to a first round in which he tees off with US Open champion Gary Woodland and Englishman Paul Casey.

It is the first time The Open has been held at Portrush since 1951 and McIlroy is desperate to triumph there, particularly as with each Major the questions about his lack of success in golf’s big four events since 2014 become more pronounced.

And it is his 16-year-old self that McIlroy hopes to emulate when the tournament gets under way on Thursday.

“I look back at those pictures and the more I can be like that kid the better,” he told Golf World. “I need to get back to that attitude where I play carefree, just happy to be there. I feel like a golf tournament is where I am most comfortable, but the pressure starts to weigh on you a little bit. As you get older, you become more cautious in life. There is something nice about being young and oblivious to some stuff.

“[That round] felt normal to me. I had that cockiness and thought this was what I was supposed to do. It is only when time goes on that I realise these things are special and you should savour them.”

Now 30 and with the spotlight on him as much as ever, replicating his teenage form is no mean feat, but McIlroy has looked far happier on the golf course in 2019. There have been echoes of the charges of old in winning the Canadian Open by seven shots last month after a nine-under-par final round, as well as top-10 finishes at both the last two Majors: the US PGA and the US Open.

And the 2014 Open champion said a second Open success “would obviously mean the world to me”.

“I’m just going to treat it like it’s another Open Championship,” he said. “It might be a bit more of a home-style atmosphere than I am used to, but I can’t control that. I can only go out and play good golf. I know what to expect. The atmosphere might be a little louder and a little bit different but the objective is the same: give myself a chance to win another Claret Jug.”

Clarke has publicly said McIlroy is his tip to win his home event, a sentiment backed up by McDowell.

“Rory and I have spent more time together this year,” said the 2010 US Open champion. “Rory is a lot more stoic. When he burst through, he was carefree but, as you get older, you start caring more. I feel like his approach to his game is changing. I like where he is at.”