It was clear from Rory McIlroy’s first five words that this time will be different.
It was clear even before that. Before he spoke at all. When the Open came to Royal Portrush in 2019 — landing on the island of Ireland for the first time in 68 years, just up the road from where McIlroy grew up — he addressed the media Wednesday, on the eve of battle. That was part of an effort that week to stay in his own bubble, to downplay the significance of combining coming home and playing one of the most important tournaments in the world all at once.
This week, though? He was the first man on the press conference schedule, 2 p.m. Monday afternoon. Control the story before the story controls you, or something to that effect. The R&A’s Mike Woodcock sat beside him, introducing and moderating just as he had in 2019. But this time, when Woodcock asked McIlroy what it means to be home, McIlroy knew just what he wanted to say.
“It means an awful lot,” he said. It was a simple, direct acknowledgment. “It’s weird, it doesn’t feel like six years has passed since 2019. I think it’s amazing that Portrush has this opportunity so soon after the last Open to host again.
“Just great to be back. I don’t spend a lot of time in these parts anymore, just with travel schedule, living abroad, all that stuff. To be here, to see a lot of familiar faces, even — every hole on the course has a different team of marshals from different golf clubs, and just to see people that I’ve met throughout the years out there this morning was really nice.
“It’s really nice to be back, and obviously very excited for the week.”
It was a notable embrace of the moment, of the place, of the pressure. It means an awful lot. Just great to be back. Very excited for the week.
Defending Open champ Xander Schauffele hands back the Claret Jug
I wasn’t there for McIlroy’s presser this time ’round. I watched it on a slight delay from the very back row of a Translink bus headed north from the Dublin Airport en route to Belfast. I know you don’t care about my travel schedule nor my nonexistent role in McIlroy’s media availability. But three things did occur to me in transit: 1. It’s probably been a while since McIlroy rode a public bus. 2. I’m sure he was delighted I wasn’t there, not because I am a specifically odious member of the press but because my colleagues have a way of gumming the gears; he mentioned how hard it was to get proper practice in at the PGA or U.S. Open, given “there’s 50 people inside the ropes all the time” and he came out first thing on Monday on just four hours of sleep in an effort to beat the crowds. And 3. It’s complex, going home. Complex if you’re moved away. More complex if you’ve become a global superstar. And complex if you’ve grown up in Northern Ireland; a bus ride from Dublin to Belfast means crossing a border, and it’s a reminder that national identity can mean different things to different people.
Back to McIlroy, though. He made a series of admissions in his presser, the kinds that sports fans relish from their favorite competitors, the sort we’ve gotten used to hearing from McIlroy over the years.
On what he remembers from Open Thursday at Portrush in 2019, when me made an 8 on the first hole en route to 79:
“The ovation I got on the first tee on Thursday and not being prepared for it or not being ready for how I was going to feel or what I was going to feel,” he recounted.
On what he remembers from Open Friday in 2019, when he shot 65 and made a spirited charge towards the cut line:
“I hit a 6-iron into the 14th, second shot, and I remember the roar from the crowd. It was sort of getting a little dark and it was overcast, and for whatever reason, that’s the one thing I remember is that shot and that roar of the crowd, and walking up to that green and getting a standing ovation. It was really special.”
He confirmed something else that we’ve noticed from the outside, that it must be strange to want something the way McIlroy wanted the career Grand Slam and then to achieve that thing.
“I think everyone could see over the last couple of months how I struggled with that; I’ve done something that I’ve told everyone that I wanted to do, but then it’s like, I still feel I have a lot more to give,” he said.
He offered some perspective on what makes golf different, particularly when the stakes are the highest, something he’s worked on for years: “I talked about it at the Masters on that last day: The battle on that last day wasn’t with Augusta National. It wasn’t with Bryson. It wasn’t with Justin Rose. The battle that day was with myself.”
But perhaps the most interesting admission was that, even though he’s been home to visit, even though he’s donated money to expand the clubhouse and the fitness center, even though it’s where he spent dawn to dusk during his childhood, even though he has a dedicated parking spot, he never plays the course where he learned the game.
“I haven’t played Holywood [Golf Club] in, I’m going to say 15 years, maybe,” he said.
There’s a saying that you can never go home again. The implication is that home will have changed — and that, more to the point, you will have, too. McIlroy’s been around the world and plans to continue his circumnavigations; on Monday, he addressed his plans to play in India and Australia by the end of the year. But this week he’s home and trying to embrace that as best he can, knowing it means something to him and everyone else, too.
“I think in ’19 I probably tried to isolate, and I think it’s better for everyone if I embrace it,” he said. “It’s nice to be able to accept adulation, even though I struggle with it at times. But it’s also nice for the person that is seeing you for the first time in a few years. It just makes for a better interaction — not trying to hide away from it.
“I think it’s more of an embrace everything that’s going to come my way this week and not try to shy away from it or hide away from it.”
It means an awful lot.
Of course it does.
Dylan Dethier will be chiming in from Portrush all week. He welcomes your comments at dylan_dethier@golf.com.
