Rory McIlroy doesn’t care too much about accolades and awards or how he will be viewed in 100 years. He continued with the afternoon press conferences theme of he’ll be long dead. But he admits receiving a knighthood in the future would be amazing even if he hasn’t heard much about it and he doesn’t seem too concerned by it.
Last year McIlroy talked about what an honour it would be to be knighted after winning the career grand slam. There has been no further development on that with a rumoured tax issue apparently holding up proceedings.
“I have no idea. If that honour were bestowed on me one day, that would be amazing, but yeah, I have no idea,” said McIlroy ahead of the 154th Open Championship at Royal Birkdale.
McIlroy, who was fourth here in 2017, is expecting a different type of test than what was presented when Jordan Spieth won. Birkdale is firm and fast. The lush green grass that was here when the six-time major winner played a practice round three weeks ago has turned blonde with hints of rust. It’s the first fiery Open since St Andrews in 2022 but whether scoring will be the hen run it was at the Old Course or be curtailed like Carnoustie in 2018 remains to be seen.
“I think it’s a double-edged sword. I think all this dry weather and sun and a little bit of wind is obviously great for the course in one way, but when I was here a couple weeks ago, the rough was a lot more penal than it’s going to be this week. It’s definitely burnt out a lot.
“There may be certain instances where — you know, the big thing, especially off the tee here, is the fairway bunkers and avoiding those. You might see some guys being more aggressive off the tee, taking driver, trying to take the fairway bunkers out of play. Okay, it might be in the rough, but it’s not that penal, so you get a wedge in your hand and you can figure it out from there.”
As for the changes to the golf course. Scottie Scheffler said they are very apparent and stand out completely from the layout of the original golf course but McIlroy feels the changes to the now drivable par-4 5th, par-3 7th, par-5 14th and par-3 15th give the course a new dimension.
“Yeah, I think most of the changes are very good. I really like the 5th hole. I like the change to the 7th. I like the change — yeah, some of the greens are maybe a little unnatural with the runoffs and sort of what they’ve tried to do with the mounding. But it creates a good challenge, and it creates options for if you do miss the green, whether it’s a putter, a bump-and-run, some guys might choose lob wedge, and I think what we all know, even going back to Shinnecock a few weeks ago, when you give professional golfers options and you can create a little bit of doubt in their minds in terms of should I play this shot or that shot, that’s when things start to get fun, especially for the viewer. Not so much for us but…
“That to me is the sign of a good championship test.”
Since winning his one and only Claret Jug up the road at Hoylake in 2014, McIlroy’s Open record should bring hope of a second with six top-10s in the intervening years. It would put the icing on the cake of another superb season where he successfully defended the Green Jacket at Augusta.
McIlroy, who has played just twelve times this season, would like to see the major season prolonged towards August like it was before Covid rather than the crash, bang, wallop nature of the schedule now.
“I’d like to see the major season spread out a little bit longer. I think it gives — the Masters is always going to have the buildup, but I think then PGA into U.S. Open, U.S. Open into here, it just seems like it’s very, very quick. From a player perspective, if you get on a bit of a run, it’s nice to be sort of playing well and go from one straight into the next.
“But for the sport as a whole and for, I guess, the general interest in the game, obviously I can see the positives in that major season being stretched out a little bit longer.”
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