Open Championship 2025: No fairytale home win for Rory McIlroy as Scottie Scheffler celebrates success at Royal Portrush Golf Club

Despite large crowds and cheers for the local favourite, McIlroy’s quest for a second Open title came up short as he finished on ten under for the tournament.

In what has been perceived as an excellent Open by the players and spectators, Scheffler carded a final round of 68 to win his first Open and further cement his status as the world’s best player.

McIlroy’s hoped-for charge failed to materialise over the front nine as he did not get the fast start he had on Saturday, when he carded three birdies in four holes.

He turned in 34, at 10 under, but having failed to gain any momentum he needed to stand a chance of a dream win in his home Open.

The writing was on the wall for the Holywood native when a mis-hit chip at the 10th cost him a double bogey and with that his chances were over.

He gained a stroke back at the 12th to move to 9 under.

He followed that birdie up by consecutive pars at 13 and 14, before landing another birdie at the 15th for 10 under.

Despite his best efforts to keep landing birdies, McIlroy carded pars in the last three holes to finish tied-seventh on 10 under.

Whilst for Scheffler, birdies at the first, after a brilliant approach to a foot, the fourth and fifth had opened up a seven-shot gap and his procession to a first Claret Jug looked even more of a formality for the world number one.

However, he got too greedy with a fairway bunker shot at the eighth and left the ball in the sand, resulting in a double-bogey six and his first dropped shot in 33 holes.

But, typically, he responded with two further birdies to get to 17 under and that’s where he finished up.

His nearest challenger was America’s Harris English who finished on 13 under, with last week’s Scottish Open winner Chris Gotterup who had turned in a three-under 33, ending his four days on 12 under.

Wyndham Clark, Matthew Fitzpatrick and Li Haotong were tied-fourth on 11 under, with McIlroy, Bob Macintyre and Xander Schauffele on 10 under.