Rory McIlroy believes Northern Ireland hosting Open Championship testament to 'how far we have come as a country'

Home favourite McIlroy – along with the world’s golfing elite – will touch down on the north coast once again as they battle it out for one of the sport’s most prestigious titles.

It will mark only the third time that Royal Portrush – and Northern Ireland – has hosted an Open Championship with the first in 1951 before returning in 2019.

The 153rd staging of The Open, which runs from July 17-20, will be the biggest ­sporting event to ever take place in ­Northern Ireland with 278,000 fans set to gather on the iconic Dunluce links throughout next week.

McIlroy believes his home country hosting an occasion of this scale has even extra significance considering the Troubles which lasted around 30 years before the Good Friday Agreement was signed in 1998.

The 36-year-old is seeking to claim his second Open title after celebrating success in 2014 and hopes to perform better than six years ago when he missed the cut.

"I think it's a great representation of how far Northern Ireland has come in the last 30 or 40 years because in the 70s, 80s and the 90s, no one would have dreamt of hosting an Open Championship in Northern Ireland in those times,” said McIlroy. “So I think it's a testament to the people of Northern Ireland for how far we have come as a country

"I lived a little bit of it (Troubles). I think my generation, honestly, couldn't care less about what had happened in the past. Everyone's just looking forward.

“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.

“It's come a long, long way, and I think just the support of – I think people really appreciate when a huge sporting event that the world's eyes are on that week, everyone there really appreciates that and excited to show the country in the best light possible.”