Rory McIlroy will soon turn his attentions to Royal Portrush for The Open Championship, having missed the cut there in 2019.
Portrush last played host to The Open Championship that year, when Irishman Shane Lowry clinched the Claret Jug.
But his close friend McIlroy fell well short of such success on home soil as he finished on two-over after two rounds, narrowly missing the cut.
It was set at one-over in tricky conditions on the Northern Irish coast, where his scores of 79 and 65 were not enough to make the weekend.
Lowry has reminisced about his 2019 Open win in the build-up to this year’s major, where McIlroy will be desperate to avoid a repeat of his nightmare.
Photo by Matthew Lewis/R&A/R&A via Getty ImagesWhat was ‘strange’ for Rory McIlroy to say after missed cut at The Open Championship in 2019
Fans that year were, however, full of support for their hero despite his missed cut, with the situation leaving him very emotional at the time.
Northern Irish star McIlroy said immediately after his second round about his emotions: “There’s a lot of them.
“Disappointed not to be here for the weekend, but unbelievably proud of how I handled myself today, coming back after what was a very challenging day yesterday.
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“I’m just full of gratitude towards every single one of the people that followed me to the very end and was willing me on.
“As much as I came here at the start of the week saying I wanted to do it for me, by the end of the round there today I was doing it just as much for them as I was for me.
“I wanted to be here for the weekend. Selfishly I wanted to feel that support for two more days. But today was probably one of the most fun rounds of golf I’ve ever played.
“It’s strange saying that standing here and having had a bit of success and won this championship before, and just to be battling to make the cut.
Rory McIlroy 2019 Open Championship scoring stats
“To play in front of those crowds today and to feel that momentum and really dig in, it’s going to be a tough one to get over.
“I’ll probably rue the finish yesterday, dropping five shots on the last three holes, but I felt like I gave a good account of myself today and I can leave here with my head held high.
“Obviously what happened yesterday was a bit of an anomaly, and there’s a few big numbers thrown in there. But I felt today I showed the real Rory McIlroy and the golf that I can play.
“You’re only as good as your last round, I guess, and one of the great things about golf is there’s always next week. I’ve got a pretty big tournament in Memphis to go to. And I’m leaving here with a pretty solid golf game.”
What is the history of The Open Championship at Royal Portrush?
McIlroy couldn’t believe the size of Royal Portrush upon seeing it for the first time, with the venue truly a sight to behold.
While the five-time major champion will be fine-tuning his game for the event at the Scottish Open, The Open tournament organisers will be putting the finishing touches on the course.
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Photo by Richard Heathcote/R&A/R&A via Getty Images
Portrush is set to stage the major championship for the third time, most recently when Lowry triumphed by six shots six years ago.
Before that, Max Faulkner lifted the Claret Jug at the venue back in 1951, when Portrush was the first course outside of Scotland and England to host the competition.
The Open Championship 2019 final leaderboard
McIlroy will be desperate for a much better start to his event this time around, having started 2019 with a disastrous quadruple bogey.
He’ll play at The Renaissance Club this week in a bid to really get in the zone, with McIlroy a winner of the Scottish Open in 2023.