Rory McIlroy: My confidence remains high despite missing out on second Open Championship victory at Royal Liverpool

The 34-year-old – who won the 2014 tournament at the same Hoylake course – started brilliantly with three birdies in the opening five holes but didn’t maintain that momentum throughout the day, finishing his final round by posting three-under in rainy conditions.

While showing sparks of potential, McIlroy couldn’t put his best game together in order to charge up the leaderboard but was still able to take positives from the week ahead of what remains a busy 2023 schedule, including the Ryder Cup in Rome.

"I got off to an ideal start again - that's what I've done every day,” he told Sky Sports. “I had a big putt on three and followed that up with a couple of really well played holes on four and five.

"It's just hard to keep it going as you can see the conditions out there are tricky. You can make a few birdies here and there but it's very difficult to go seven or eight under like I needed to today to make a charge.

"Confidence is high. I'm playing well off the back of a win last week and another solid performance here.

"I want to try and be right in there and win another FedEx Cup, there's another Race To Dubai to win and the Ryder Cup, which is the most important of them all.

"After what happened at Whistling Straits, personally and for the rest of the team, I don't think we could be more motivated to go to Rome and get that Ryder Cup back.

"There's a lot of golf to play individually until then but I think a lot of our attention will turn to Rome after this."

Missing out on a second Open crown means McIlroy’s wait for a fifth major goes on – his last success came at the 2014 PGA Championship with this now a remarkable 20th top-10 finish since that triumph.

After failing to make the cut at The Masters earlier this year, McIlroy ended tied for seventh at the PGA Championship and was runner-up behind Wyndham Clark at the US Open.

"Augusta - just forget about that,” he reflected on his year at the majors. “I didn't feel like I had my best stuff at Oak Hill and pieced it together and finished seventh, I had a great chance in LA but didn't get the job done and this week if it wasn't for one guy I would be right there.

"I'm playing well and keep putting myself in there. At the end of the day when I look back on my career, am I going to remember my fifth-placed finish at Hoylake? Probably not. It's still another solid performance and there's a lot of golf left to play this year."