The longer Rory McIlroy hangs tough in this absorbing 150th Open Championship, the more his major championship drought dating back to 2014 at Hoylake and his numerous near misses since will be relitigated.
With that – not to mention the actual cauldron of an Old Course Open weekend – the pressure will ratchet up, shot after shot. In these fabled surrounds at this historic Open, the Rory McIlroy of the past eight years would find it all a bit suffocating, invariably relent to the blowtorch before playing his way to a relatively irrelevant backdoor top 10 that only adds to the long-term frustration.
But things feel different this week, patient rounds of 66-68 allowing McIlroy to enter the weekend just three adrift of halfway leader Cam Smith. Indeed this year, the 33-year-old Northern Irishman seems to be taking his role as the de facto spokesman against rebel forces as a badge of honour and playing more mature golf as a result, as if he is leading the resistance over the top of golf’s traditional trenches.
The next 36 holes will be the ultimate judge but McIlroy is at least making all the right noises again, insisting outside pressure is something he cannot control and thus doesn’t really consider.
What do you gain from being in contention in three majors this year so far?
“Yeah, I mean, all I can do is — I mean, we play so much golf. I’d have to actually think about what I did at the U.S. Open. I’d have to remind myself… I don’t even know at this point. But just play good golf and keep hitting good shots and hit a good shot and hit another good shot after that and just try to hit good golf shots until you run out of holes.”
Rory McIlroy has his sights set on the Claret Jug after going into the weekend -10 at #The150thOpen
Watch his Round in 60 Seconds 👇 pic.twitter.com/oaFfqNnPkl
— The Open (@TheOpen) July 15, 2022
The good news is that McIlroy, winner of the RBC Canadian Open in June and runner-up, eighth and tied fifth at the past three majors, feels at ease with his game. He also has the galleries willing him on, shot after good golf shot.
“It’s been like this all year. I felt pretty much in control of everything. And I think the results and the consistency have backed that up.”
McIlroy was -8 for the championship when he bogeyed the par-3 8th but birdied the 10th, 11th and 12th in repost. Then, after another potentially momentum-stalling bogey at 15th, he rifled a 190-yard iron from the whispy fescue to 15 feet on the infamous Road Hole and duly holed the birdie putt. There was disappointment with a mere par on the drivable 18th but you sense McIlroy will relish his chasers role on Saturday.
“I’m picking holes in everything and walking off thinking I could have been a couple better but I’m in a great position going into the weekend,” he said.
“I’ve had two really, really solid rounds to open and I’m happy with that. It would have been nice to birdie the last but I would have taken playing the last two in one under. I just did it in the reverse way in how I thought I would do it. You just have to stay patient and limit mistakes out there.”
McIlroy will partner Viktor Hovland, also at -10, in the penultimate group out at 3.45 pm (6.45 pm UAE time). Just ahead of them will be the ever-dangerous Dustin Johnson (-9) and Scottie Scheffler (-8) who somehow operates under the radar despite being world No.1. before them, Tyrrell Hatton (-8) and Adam Scott (-7) will have plenty of support from the galleries.
Hatton has won the Dunhill Links at this venue but the conditions are mucher green in October and the pins tucked much tighter on this firm and fast week with the R&A trying to protect the Old Course’s integrity. Scott still carries the mental scars of successive bogeys on the closing four holes at Royal Lytham and St Annes to essentially hand Ernie Els the second of his Open wins in 2012.
“You don’t need much extra motivation at an Open Championship,” Scott said after his 65. “But anytime I think about letting one slip through my hands, it hurts.
“It would be exciting if I shot a really great round tomorrow [Saturday] to tee off with a legitimate feeling that I’m in contention, not only for the fact that I haven’t really been in that position for a major for a little while but also for the fact that I’ve had one hand on this jug and I’d like to put two on.”
The cut was set at even par 144 with former champions Els, Henrik Stenson, Louis Oosthuizen and Collin Morikawa, the defender, among those to miss out on the weekend by a shot.
Alongside a tearful Tiger Woods (+9), Phil Mickelson (+5), Brooks Koepka (+4), Pádraig Harrington, John Daly (with a bogey-bogey-bogey finish in his likely final Open) and Zach Johnson (all +3) also missed out. Harrington’s departure was particularly galling as the two-time former champion had been -5 for the championship after opening the second round with back-to-back birdies before boarding a bogey train that would see him sign for a 78.
