Rory McIlroy has recorded 17 top 10 finishes in major tournaments since he last won one. Credit: Getty Images/Oisin Keniry
So it comes down to this. Rory McIlroy has one more chance to ensure he doesn't lose a decade overall. If the 34-year-old leaves Royal Liverpool without a Claret pitcher on Sunday night, he will complete a stretch that no one would have believed nine years ago.
McIlroy won his third Major at this Wirral Links tournament and also lifted the Wanamaker Trophy from the US PGA three weeks later. Over the years, McIlroy has tried just about everything to get away from 4th place, but while he came close – 17 top 10 finishes in 33 majors, including three runners-up – he stuck.
On this occasion, he chose to avoid the media center in the build-up, essentially choosing to take fifth place to try and win fifth. Will it work? In truth, for the last two seasons he's been knocking on that door louder than he's ever been since his glorious summer.
Two seconds, three, five, seven and eight…. It must be his turn again soon. Factors in his favor seem to be piling up in this fortunate set of circumstances.
McIlroy's uniform
After losing a loss at the Masters, McIlroy was crushed in April by his old double-sided slip. And his spirits barely improved after the shocking announcement that Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund was teaming up with the PGA and DP world tours.
“I feel like a sacrificial lamb,” McIlroy said in early June, and despite a resurgent seventh-place finish in the USPGA, he had an obvious fear that a sense of betrayal—the Tours had allowed him to become their mouthpiece against the LIV and blinded him by the alliance—would come through. into his competitive psyche.
Instead, he looked inside himself and found steel. At the US Open last month, he was defeated by a simple punch from inspired underdog Wyndham Clark. It was McIlroy's closest since Valhalla on the very Sunday that Chelsea's José Mournijo kicked off a Premier League campaign that was supposed to bring another trophy for Special.
McIlroy bounced back from a heartbreaking LA Country Club bout with perhaps his most daring success at the Scottish Open last week when he hit one of the two great irons on the 18th to strip home favorite Bob McIntyre. It was the perfect preparation for the bundles that brought him to second place in the world. As the Americans say, “he's on trend.”
McIlroy landed a superb two-iron shot to secure the win at the Scottish Open last week. Photo: Getty Images/Oct avio Passos His attitude
Paul McGinley, McIlroy's confidant, has long drawn attention to Rory's “spiky shoulders”. He's irresistible, unstoppable when he jumps the fairway and dominates the tournaments,” McGinley told Telegraph Sport. “Alas, we haven't seen him for a long time.”
In his purple patch, he would have alienated other pros with his impulse, but now, after the LIV hype, it seems that there is real poison in a character who does not have bad bones. McIlroy has made it his mission to take himself out of the debate by refusing to hold pre-tournament press conferences in his last four tournaments.
There were moments when he couldn't resist – last week at the Renaissance Club, he told reporters, “I'd rather retire than ever play LIV Golf,” but other than that, he's been diligently silent.
Naturally, we hackers shouldn't hail one of the greatest and most honest speakers in the game, retreating for his management, but so far it seems to help his golf. He was in complete control at the US Open and last week he gave a wonderful contradiction to those detractors who say he can't show in tight situations.
It's amazing how far he's come since leaving Augusta inconsolable 13 weeks ago, wondering how the hell he played so badly. McIlroy “hates” LIV, but the problem could be the catalyst for a grim resurrection.
Course
McIlroy has a history of repeat wins on the same circuits. Thirteen of his 37 victories came in five courses. Hoylake is not as lush as it was in 2014, but he felt the vibration as soon as he entered the city.
“When I drove here on Monday, everything started to come back to me,” he said.
He looked comfortable in training, no more so than on Wednesday, when huge galleries followed his fourball, which also included Tommy Fleetwood, Tyrrell Hatton and Victor Hovland. As a loyal boy, Fleetwood is certainly a crowd favorite, but McIlroy's level of support has never been this intense, with the exception of Portrush in 2019.McIlroy was followed by a large crowd during his practice round along with Tommy Fleetwood, Victor Hovland and Tyrrell Hatton. Photo: Getty Images/Jared C. Tilton
The incident stunned McIlroy in his home country as he made his first out-of-bounds tee shot and narrowly scored 79 on the track, where he scored 61 as a 16-year-old. McIlroy had poor starting rounds but pulled himself out of that rut by playing his first rounds in the last two seasons with the under-18 combined team.
A quick start is crucial for McIlroy, who has been there or thereabouts from the start in every big win, and despite the late game time, he imagines throwing himself off the track in a happy hunting ground on Thursday.
Symmetry
McIlroy's latest big win comes after he took the win the previous weekend. This is only the second time since he won directly the week before, and he will be very confident in this statistic.
Much is made of McIlroy's scar tissue, but he claims that Valhalla was now so long ago that he can barely remember the feeling. In short, he is trying to recreate what he cannot remember. In a way, it all feels new to him.
“I've won about 20 times since my last big win, so it's hardly a waste of time,” he recently told Telegraph Sport. “All these victories, all this experience will be useful to me when I get to the Major. I know he's there.”
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