After finally completing the career Grand Slam, McIlroy admits: I would love to win an Open at Portrush!

Given the enormity of finally completing the career Grand Slam at The Masters in April, Rory McIlroy could have put his feet up and hit cruise-control for the rest of 2025.

After so many years of trying and failing to get the job done at Augusta National, few would have blamed him if he experienced something of a lull in majors thereafter.

But next week’s Open Championship at Royal Portrush is looming large on the horizon. Does it carry extra significance being on home soil? Yeah, not half.

At 36 years old, McIlroy is acutely aware of the fact that he might not have many more chances left to win an Open in Northern Ireland. It focuses the mind in a way that no other event or venue could.

For any player to have one eye on the Claret Jug may do a disservice to the fact that the Genesis Scottish Open is now an A-list event in its own right with a star-studded field.

In McIlroy’s case, however, it is understandable. Whilst it’s difficult to envisage how anything could ever top the win at Augusta, victory at Portrush would surely come close.

He will also have a score to settle, given that he missed cut when The Open was last staged at Portrush back in 2019.

As he tees it up at The Renaissance in East Lothian today, his first appearance in Europe since winning the Green Jacket, McIlroy will look to get his eye in ahead of a tilt at Open glory.

‘If venues matter to you, it maybe puts a little bit more pressure on you,’ explained McIlroy.

‘I would love to win an Open at Portrush, absolutely. I would love to win an Open at St Andrews. I would love to win a US Open at Pebble Beach.

‘There are venues in the game that just mean a little bit more.

‘I think it’s a great representation of how far Northern Ireland has come in the last 30 or 40 years.

‘In the 70s, the 80s and the 90s, no one would have dreamed of hosting an Open Championship in Northern Ireland.

‘So it’s a testament to the people of Northern Ireland for how far we as a country have come.

‘My mum and dad both grew up in the 60s and the 70s and Northern Ireland was a very different place.

‘I feel very fortunate that I’m of the generation that I am that I didn’t have to deal with any of that or very little of it (The Troubles).

‘It has come a long way. People really appreciate when a huge sporting event that the world’s eyes are on that week happens.

‘Everyone there really appreciates that and excited to show the country in the best light possible.’

In discussing the issue of longevity and how many more chances he would have to win an Open on home soil, McIlroy drew comparisons with other sportsmen.

‘It’s a little like when Novak Djokovic won the Olympics last year: he knew that was going to be his final chance,’ he continued.

‘You saw the emotion and you saw how much it meant to him. You think about it, and you can’t pretend that it’s not there.

‘But when you are on the course, you just have to go out there and play as if you’re not playing at home and just play as if it’s another tournament.

‘It obviously is a little more emphasis. There’s something extra there, just like there is at an Open at St Andrews or a US Open at Pebble Beach.

‘You look at what Djokovic is doing at Wimbledon, or what someone like a Cristiano Ronaldo is still doing at 40 years old, Tom Brady in American football.

‘That longevity is something that maybe isn’t talked about enough. The younger talents keep coming through, so you need to adapt your game to be able to hang with them.’

McIlroy starts as one of the favourites in East Lothian this week, having won the event two years ago when a stunning birdie-birdie finish saw him pip Bob MacIntyre.

A stellar field featuring the world’s top five players, as well as eight of the top 10, will be gunning for glory and looking to ensure the scoring is as hot as the scorching sunshine.

After taking a couple of weeks off to escape the ‘grind’, McIlroy arrives in Scotland feeling refreshed and recharged.

‘The one thing I would say about the last couple of weeks is I felt like I could detach a little bit more and sort of hide,’ he added.

‘Sometimes you need that to completely get away. I feel like this world of golf can become all encompassing if you let it.

‘Justin Rose and I came up here together earlier this week and we were chatting about how there is a detachment from the sort of week-in, week-out grind.

‘Over the past 12 months, one of my New Year’s resolutions was to have more fun, and I’ve really tried to do that.

‘Me and a bunch of friends went to Dortmund in January and watched the Borussia Dortmund versus Bayer Leverkusen game.

‘We then stopped off in Istanbul for a night out on our way over to Dubai. Poppy (his daughter) is starting to learn how to ski, so we went to Montana in February and took a skiing holiday.

‘I think now at this stage of life that I’m at, I’m actually trying to build my schedule around those weeks instead of the other way around, trying to sort of fit them in here or can I take four days off.

‘It’s more, no, these are going to, not take the priority, but they are going to become more important in scheduling the year, and yeah, then fit the golf tournaments around those.’

Meanwhile, World No 1 Scottie Scheffler is confident he can finally crack links golf amid a red-hot run of form.

Scheffler has reeled off nine consecutive top-10 finishes, three of which have been victories.

But for all the abundance of success he has enjoyed over the past couple of years, he has never won on a links course.

‘It would be pretty special to win in the country that’s the home of golf,’ said the American star.

‘My first ever experience of links golf was here at the Scottish Open a few years ago. It’s a different test and I enjoy how you need to be creative around these courses.’