The thing with Rory McIlroy is that there are always boxes to be ticked. Even with the accomplishment of completing the career Grand Slam with his Masters win back in April, the first European player to achieve the feat, the cycle of the golfing season – if not actually following the sun this week – presents new challenges in any given week.
Here at The K Club in Straffan in Co. Kildare, it’s the Amgen Irish Open. Next week, it’s the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth adjacent to his new home in the stockbroker belt of Surrey in England. Later this month, there’s the Ryder Cup.
If we’re entirely honest, the prospect of an away win for Europe in that match against the United States at Bethpage is the priority. “I think winning an away Ryder Cup, it’s up there with one of the biggest achievements in the game, especially nowadays,” advocated McIlroy, with the results of history providing vindication for such a view and fuelling a desire to add further lustre to what has been a magnificent season for the Northern Irishman.
Yet, McIlroy is here, playing a pro-am in the rain, with his waterproofs tested to the limit, on the eve of the Irish Open’s return to a course where, as tournament host in 2016 he lay claim to the title, one of 19 he has won on the DP World Tour, and with a sense of further deliverance to come his way.
RM Block
McIlroy’s season has been one of dominance in the first part – three wins on the PGA Tour, the Pebble Beach pro-am followed by The Players and then, historically, the Masters – followed, understandably, by nine tournaments since adding the green jacket to his wardrobe which has not managed to scale such heights. His nearest finish to add another win to his list came with a runners-up finish in the Scottish Open.
So, two tournaments and three weeks out from the Ryder Cup, the Irish Open and the BMW PGA – his first events since the Tour Championship in Atlanta – provide both opportunities to get back to winning ways but also to ensure his game is as sharp as can be for that test in Bethpage where the New York crowds won’t be shy about coming forward, most probably in a boisterous manner.
McIlroy spent last weekend on a family break in the west of Ireland where it rained for “72 hours”, according to him, and the weather system would appear to have followed him to the plains of Kildare where he is the headline act and one of 11 Irish players competing in the old championship which in two years will celebrate its centenary year.
Those wins that came thick and fast and so brilliantly earlier in the season have proven more elusive since, understandably so in getting his head around the fact that, as the Grand Slam club’s newest member, joining an elite six-man group that also includes Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods, his primary golfing ambition was realised.
Time to start ticking boxes again, so.
“I would love to add another W to the win column this year, but it’s not a necessity. I’d love to get myself into contention and at least be a little bit sharper than I was at BMW [in the FedEx Cup playoffs] and at the Tour Championship [at East Lake]. I figured out my ball striking at least in Atlanta. I felt like I hit the ball terribly at the BMW but I putted well. Then in Atlanta, I hit the ball better but I putted terribly. So I just need to try to piece everything together.
“These are two big weeks, to make sure the game is sharp, but I think the only way to tell you’re as sharp as you want to be is getting yourself in contention under pressure and at the business end of things on Sunday. I think it’s important to do that. It’s important to give myself a couple of chances to win.
“Ultimately, winning, that would be lovely, but I don’t think it’s absolutely necessary going into the Ryder Cup. But it would be great to at least feel really good about my game and looking ahead to Bethpage,” said McIlroy.
McIlroy is the headline act, for sure, with a Q&A in the spectator village and the prospect of wearing the green jacket to boot on his schedule after his first round, but the field – even with defending champion Rasmus Hojgaard opting not to defend in what would have been his fourth event in four weeks and Wentworth set to make it five and with former Masters champion Sergio Garcia withdrawing – is a strong one with almost 50 players who have won at least once on the DP World Tour inside the past two seasons.
The inclusion of a number of the LIV breakaway players – especially Tyrrell Hatton, one of three players along with McIlroy and Shane Lowry headed for Bethpage competing, Patrick Reed and Tom McKibbin – has also provided some added spice to the mix.
McIlroy, though, is the main man. Perhaps another W is headed his way, on a course where he has played well traditionally. He won in 2016, contended in 2023 only to fall away with a final round 74 for tied-16th. “For me it suits my style of game. I feel like my game travels pretty much everywhere, and I’ve done well on links courses as well. The K Club’s got a lot going for it.”
No better time then to add to the legend.
