Rory McIlroy believes a home Open Championship at Royal Portrush where he will arrive as a grand slam champion is the perfect recipe to rediscover his motivation.
McIlroy has lacked drive since winning the Masters in April and he has endured two disappointing major finishes at the PGA Championship and US Open. With just one major remaining, the Holywood man is already relishing a Claret Jug battle in Royal Portrush next month.
“I’m looking forward to just getting back to Europe in general,” said McIlroy who will be a regular fixture on the DP World Tour from here until the end of the year. “Obviously I’ve got one more week over here. Play Hartford next week.
“Yeah, we’ve got a lot to look forward to, got our new house in London, play the Scottish and then obviously The Open at Portrush.”
McIlroy famously hit his opening tee shot out of bounds six years ago on his way to an emotional missed cut so trying to right the wrongs of that week should already be piquing his focus.
“Just trying to get myself in the right frame of mind to approach that. I feel like playing an Open at Portrush already and sort of at least remembering what those feelings were like and those feelings that I was probably unprepared for at the time. Yeah, and obviously it will be my first time sort of in public back home after winning the Masters. It should be a really nice week.
“Hopefully I can celebrate with them on Sunday night with the Claret Jug and the Green Jacket.
Since winning the Masters, the Open Championship in Portrush has been billed as ‘Rory Mania’ add to that Shane Lowry’s return as defending course champion after winning in 2019, the Dunluce Links is set for pandemonium.
McIlroy should need no further motivation.
“It will be amazing to go home and play in that atmosphere and see a lot of people that I still haven’t seen yet,” he said after closing his US Open with a final round of 67 at Oakmont.
“I am, I’m really looking forward to it. It was nice to end this week with a bit of a positive note with the way I played today, and yeah, I’ll just be looking forward to and trying to get myself prepared for Portrush.
“If I can’t get motivated to get up for an Open Championship at home, then I don’t know what can motivate me. Yeah, as I said, I just need to get myself in the right frame of mind. I probably haven’t been there the last few weeks.
“But as I said, getting home and having a couple weeks off before that, hopefully feeling refreshed and rejuvenated, will get me in the right place again.”
They say the hardest part of scaling the mountain, is finding a way back down. McIloy’s descent from the tip of Everest or cloud nine has been rocky.
Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus often reached peaks but were just as hungry to look for the next height in their pursuit of major glory.
McIlroy fell down the mountain in Portrush in 2019 and he feels an emotional return gives him his next Everest.
“I climbed my Everest in April, and I think after you do something like that, you’ve got to make your way back down, and you’ve got to look for another mountain to climb. An Open at Portrush is certainly one of those.”
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