'The defence I never had' - Rory McIlroy relishing Open Championship's return to Old Course at St Andrews
/dnl.eurosport.com/sd/img/placeholder/eurosport_logo_1x1.png){kind=logo}
Updated 09/07/2022 at 17:46 GMT
Rory McIlroy will be among the favourites for the Open Championship on the Old Course at St Andrews. That would have been the case when the event last took place at the home of golf in 2015, but the Irishman never got the chance to defend his Claret Job on account of an ankle injury the world No. 2 picked up while playing football.
Rory McIlroy acknowledges the crowd at the Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands on June 24, 2022 in Cromwell, Connecticut
Image credit: Getty Images
Rory McIlroy is approaching next week’s Open Championship like the defence of the Claret Jug he never got the chance to experience.
The Irishman won the 2014 Open at Royal Liverpool in stunning fashion, but he was denied the chance to defend the title at St Andrews in 2015 due to an ankle injury he picked up while playing football.
The Open is back at St Andrews for the event’s 150th anniversary, and McIlroy relishing getting back on the Old Course.
“Even the Open that I won in 2014 seems like a long time ago now as well, so I would love to get my hands on another Claret Jug,” McIlroy, who last played an Open at St Andrews in 2010, said. “Everyone talks about winning an Open Championship, and then winning an Open at St Andrews maybe means that little bit extra.
“St Andrews will feel like the defence I never had, and then hopefully I’m defending at Royal Liverpool again in 2023.”
McIlroy will head to the Open in decent form, having gone close at all three majors this year and the winner of the Canadian Open last months.
He is looking to take the pressure off, but is happy with his form heading into the final major of the year.
“I can’t go into the Open approaching it like I’ve got unfinished business at this golf course,” McIlroy told TheOpen.com. “You know I feel like there’s enough pressure on me anyway without putting more on myself.
“But it’s one that I‘ve been looking forward to for a long, long time – 12 years. I want to just make sure that I’m in the best possible shape to go there.
“I’m playing well, I’m playing some of the best golf I’ve played in a long time. I’ve played well in the majors this year without getting the win, but I’ve contended in all of them really. So it’s a good opportunity.
“I have maybe something to prove to myself and other people, but the way I’m playing I feel like I’m going in there with just as good a chance I’ve had at an Open since I can remember.”
McIlroy finished third in the 2010 Open, having led by two strokes after round one only to be blown off track by terrible weather in round two and battling back.
Scan me
Share this article
Advertisement
Advertisement