Rory McIlroy's game 'in really good shape' for Open major bid
Rory McIlroy heads into the final major of the season searching for greens gains at Royal Troon in a bid to break his decade-long drought.
The Open Championship arrives off the back of a tied-fourth finish by defending champion McIlroy yesterday at the Scottish Open – his first tournament appearance since agonisingly missing out on that long-awaited fifth major glory at June’s US Open.
When asked after the Scottish Open for his focus heading into Royal Troon, McIlroy said: “So I think refamiliarising myself with the golf course.
"I played it eight years ago and remember it pretty well.
"I think just getting a good strategy on what I'm going to do off the tees, and then it's in and around the greens.
"It's the shots that you need around the greens.
"You know, the bunkers at Troon are very penal. Trying to employ a strategy where you can navigate your way around them, and then as I said, my ball-striking is there.
“So if I can get the putter to cooperate and get the speed of the greens down, more so than hitting my lines, I feel like I'm hitting my lines but more so getting the speed of the greens, I feel like I'll be in a really good spot.”
McIlroy described his game as “good” for the forthcoming challenge.
“Yeah, it's good,” he said. “I haven't played links golf since Hoylake last year, so it was good to get back on a links course for the first time.
"Got to play in a little bit of wind today. It's still not much but a little more than we had.
"Yeah, just getting acclimatised to the shots that you need, and maybe I don't think the speeds of the greens are going to be too dissimilar next week, as well. So just trying to adjust to that.
“Overall, I feel like my game is in really good shape heading into the final major of the year.”
McIlroy was in a six-way tie for fourth yesterday on 14 under as home favourite Robert MacIntyre improved on his runner-up spot last year to the Northern Irishman with a dramatic final-day push.
Joining McIlroy in the field at Royal Troon will be two other Northern Ireland names – Darren Clarke as a past Open champion and Tom McKibbin thanks to the qualifying series pathway.