ROYAL TROON GOLF CLUB — He was not hard to spot. On a Troon morning as dreich as they come, Scotland’s west coast layered in a stubborn sea mizzle, those doughty enough to brave the course early signalled Rory McIlroy’s presence by their number.
And it wasn’t just the golf disciples, for whom attendance at the Open is a sacred ritual, who were taking McIlroy’s temperature. The McIlroy party inside the ropes included Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald, who is not in the Open field, and Sky Sports analyst, Ken Brown.
It was, said Brown, just a coincidence that he happened across McIlroy’s practise with Darren Clarke as he was making his course notes.
We believe you Ken. Any sense of lingering disappointment following the crushing final holes at the US Open last month when a two shot-lead at Pinehurst slipped away was dispelled by the controlled splendour of McIlroy’s ball-striking and the lightness of his step.
“Unbelievable,” said Brown, conveying in word and facial expression the same sense of wonder shared by civilians who flock to this tournament to witness the majesty of a ball being violated as only McIlroy can.
I intercepted the group on the par-3 14th. McIlroy found the front edge with a short iron into the wind. Clarke missed left with his first effort and found the bunker on the right with his second, after which he picked up his tee in disgust and trundled on.
Clarke, a winner of this championship in 2011, is one of the great iron players, especially in the wind. Perhaps softened a little by age and playing in the endless sunshine of the PGA Champions Tour, Clarke was not quite in sync this early in the week.
Nevertheless, it was apparent the two were playing different games. It is this sense of otherness, of this extra dimension, that captivates observers witnessing the McIlroy phenomenon in the flesh.
On the 15th hole, a 502-yard par four, McIlroy played his second from a spot 50 yards in advance of Clarke. He was out of position on the par-5 16th but gouged one out of the wispy rough and holed from off the green for birdie.
Standing behind him as he addressed the ball was putting coach Brad Faxon, who felt the pain of those missed four-footers at Pinehurst as much as McIlroy.
When the ball dropped the pair exchanged a mock fist bump as if celebrating the winning putt on championship Sunday. That might well come to pass. As Paul McGinley remarked, McIlroy has a history of resilience and bounce-back victories, and claims he is more optimistic about McIlroy claiming a fifth major after his US Open experience than he was before it.
“One of the biggest disappointments was missing the cut at his home course [Royal Portrush] in 2019. He went on a tear after that, winning the FedEx Cup,” McGinley said.
“We saw him bouncing back at the US Open straight after his meltdown on the back nine at Augusta [2011 Masters]. He does have a lot of that. A lot more than people think. Had he putted half decent he would have won last week [Scottish Open]. There is a lot of learning came out of it [US Open setback] but also a lot of determination as well.”
Donald is here as a member of the NBC commentary team. Like Brown, he was not here to watch Clarke hit shots, however much he admires the Portrush favourite. Donald was out in the rain to run an expert eye over McIlroy for a US audience that could not relate to McIlroy more were he born in New York or Philadelphia.
One of the first to make contact after Pinehurst was arguably America’s greatest athlete, Michael Jordan, who reminded McIlroy of the number of key shots he missed during his decorated basketball career.
Tiger Woods also reached out but not before McIlroy had changed his number. “Full disclosure,” he said. “I changed my number two days after the US Open, so I didn’t get it until he told me about it today. I was like, ‘Oh, thanks very much’. So I blanked Tiger Woods, which is probably not a good thing.”
McIlroy was over his disappointment before the week was out. “It’s funny how your mindset can go from ‘I don’t want to see a golf course for a month’ to like, four days later, being ‘can’t wait to get another shot at it’. When that disappointment turns to motivation, that’s when it’s time to go again.”
That’s how it looked at Troon 48 hours before the starter fires up the 152nd Open Championship. And having his captain from Rome on site was an added bonus, not least because of his expertise with the putter.
“I sort of picked Luke’s brain a little bit,” McIlroy explained in the context of adapting to the slower pace of the greens on this side of the Atlantic, an aspect which cost him in Scotland at the Renaissance Club last week.
“He always said he liked to focus on the tempo of his stroke and really, if anything, make it a little shorter and a little brisker on greens like this. So that’s something; the strike, and maybe just think a little bit more about the tempo of the stroke, two good things this week.”
A decade without a major has become the dominant narrative of mid-career McIlroy, a corrosive feature that distorts the truth of what has been an exceptional return by an extraordinary golfer, the best Europe has produced, McGinley argues.
“In terms of his ability McIlroy is the most talented. Seve had more flair but as an all-round package Rory is the best. He hasn’t won a major for ten years and that is the stick that he is hit with but tell me a big tournament anywhere in the world he hasn’t won from Australia, Ireland, Scotland, Canada, the FedEx.
“Wherever you want to go he has knocked off those titles. His resume is phenomenal. His career has been outstanding. He just has to find a way of not caring so much [about majors]. Coming down the stretch with that exuberance the way he does on the PGA Tour to get across the line, with a spring in his step, a smile on his face.
“How he played in the Ryder Cup, how he beat Xander Schauffele at Quail Hollow a couple of months ago. Schauffele threw everything he had at him and Rory just steam rolled him. That was unencumbered Rory.”
McGinley echoed the view that McIlroy is a better player now than he has ever been, and that the next major victory will beget three or four to take him beyond Nick Faldo’s total of six, the highwater mark of any European golfer.
The quest continues on Thursday in the company of Max Homa and Tyrell Hatton, playing partners exhibiting opposing extremes, the former as zen as they come, the latter as combustible. The path to redemption lies somewhere in between, if only McIlroy can find it.
Watch The 152nd Open at Royal Troon from 18th – 21st July, exclusively live on Sky Sports Main Event, Sky Sports Golf, and NOW subscription.