A pre-tournament three-ball of Rory McIlroy, Bryson DeChambeau and US President Donald Trump. Wouldn’t that be something?
Donald Trump is open to attending September’s Amgen Irish Open at his course in Doonbeg while there are rumours that DeChambeau will tee it up given his close links to the US President. McIlroy bodied DeChambeau yesterday saying he took the Open hostage over his performative reaction to a rules breach but would still like to see the American play in the event believing it would benefit the tournament.
“I think that would be great for the tournament, absolutely. Having someone like Bryson at the Irish Open, yeah, it would be great for the tournament,” said the Holywood man who admitted on Saturday that he doesn’t particularly like Bryson.
McIlroy has questioned the direction the PGA Tour is going in and last week pleaded for the PGA Tour to preserve the tradition and fabric of national opens ahead of the tour restructuring in 2028. However, he doesn’t see the Irish Open forming part of the PGA Tour as a co-sanctioned event like the Scottish Open – which attracts a world class field each year in the famed week before the Open Championship slot.
“I guess next year it might change because of the Ryder Cup in Adare, but if it’s going to stay in that September date, I don’t see how it becomes part of the PGA TOUR season when the PGA TOUR is going to be played from February to August.”
In his post-round interview in the mixed zone, McIlroy admitted that it was “fair” to say that he is not quite fired up by chasing the FedEx Cup title as he once was prior to his Grand Slam win last year.
The six-time major winner has taken on a more global schedule over the last twelve months and insists if he can remain in the top-30 in the FedEx Cup rankings, which would give him a chance at winning the season long title, why would he bother playing the first two playoff events?
“I think it just sort of ebbs and flows. There’s been years where I’ve given it maybe more of my attention and years that I haven’t. Yeah, I guess I’m just at a stage that I have other things that I prioritise.
“Again, the PGA TOUR is in a lot of flux at the minute with a lot of their schedule and structure and everything like that. So I think the change where it doesn’t matter where you are in the top 30 going into the TOUR Championship, it’s like I just need to be in the top 30 going in there to have a chance to win a FedExCup. So why would I care about the first two?
“I sort of came to that decision last year, and I’m just sort of doing the same thing.”
As for his chase for a second Claret Jug where he ended the week in T40 on one-under after a 71 he conceded that he couldn’t get anything going on the greens but he was pleased with how he drove the ball.
“I just sort of stuck in neutral for most of the week. Obviously shot a good one on Friday to get myself in for the weekend and back in it. Yeah, even par over the weekend is not going to get it done.
“Yeah, I just felt like any time I got a little bit of momentum out there, I seemed to make a bogey. Yeah, just one of those weeks I couldn’t get it going.
“Yeah, the driver was good. I feel like with a lot of the changes they made, the greens were raised up and a lot of the fall-offs and stuff, it didn’t play like a traditional links course. I didn’t feel like you could run the ball up to a lot of greens. There was a lot of stuff where you still had to fly the ball on.
“I’m not saying that’s the reason I didn’t play well this week, it didn’t feel like it was sort of your typical links test or certainly wasn’t the links test that Birkdale presented in 2017.”
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