NORTH BERWICK, Scotland \u2014 It all seemed to be going so well. Rory McIlroy arrived in Scotland rested and eager to repeat the success he had here in 2024, just a week before the year\u2019s final major. After rounds of 65 and 66, the Masters champion was tied for the lead heading into the weekend. Then the weather, and, apparently, his swing changed.<\/p>\n
After fog delayed play early on Saturday, the final group didn\u2019t tee off until 6pm local time at The Renaissance Club. They got eight holes in before play was suspended again, this time for the day. In those eight holes, McIlroy played himself out of the tournament. He played those in three over par. From tied to the lead, he slipped outside the top 25. <\/p>\n
\u201cI was pretty much in control of everything after the first two days, and then it was a long day yesterday,\u201d he said after his final round.<\/p>\n
However, an early alarm clock on Sunday morning, a range session with his coach Michael Bannon and more visible conditions led McIlroy to almost believe the impossible was possible in the final round. Starting the day six shots behind the leaders, the Northern Irishman shot 64 and finished in a tie for seventh at 12 under, five shots behind winner Tom Kim.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s nice to sign this week off with a good score,\u201d McIlroy said. \u201cThere\u2019s definitely some positive signs.\u201d<\/p>\n
This was only the 37-year-old\u2019s fifth start in 12 weeks since defending his green jacket at Augusta and he leaves Scotland admitting he has some work to do if he wants to compete for a second claret jug next week at Royal Birkdale.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know I need to do a bit of work between now and next Thursday to feel really comfortable with my game. But I don’t feel like it’s too far away,\u201d McIlroy said.<\/p>\n
So what does McIlroy need to find when he arrives in Southport? A right-to-left wind, supposedly.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just need to hit some balls in a right-to-left wind.\u201d he said. \u201cThat usually helps me. Again, it’s the same thing that I get a lot when I start hitting balls in a left-to-right wind like it has been over the weekend. My path and my face just get too far apart\u2026 and I start hitting these left shots, especially with the irons.\u201d<\/p>\n
Luckily for the World No. 2, players at the Open will be using the driving range of nearby Hillside next week, with the usual Birkdale range being reserved for a spectator village. The prevailing wind there? Right-to-left.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NORTH BERWICK, Scotland \u2014 It all seemed to be going so well. Rory McIlroy arrived in Scotland rested…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42723,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[2274,399,16913,1578,82],"class_list":["post-42722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rory-mcilroy","tag-openchampionship2026","tag-rory-mcilroy","tag-rory-mcilroy-rallies-with-a-64-in-scottish-and-hopes-for-one-favorable-condition-for-open-championship","tag-scottish-open","tag-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}