NO PRESSURE!

McIlroy insists he’s not feeling heat at home

RORY McILROY insists he is not feeling the pressure of being favourite to win the Open on home soil, claiming: ‘I don’t see myself as the centre of attention.’

McIlroy, 30, is seeking to end a fiveyear major drought when play gets underway in Portrush today, while also embracing the thrill of playing the Open in Northern Ireland.

‘One of my mantras this week is: look around and smell the roses. This is a wonderful thing for this country and golf in general,’ said McIlroy (right).

‘To be quite a big part of it is an honour and a privilege. And I want to keep reminding myself of that, that this is bigger than me; right? This is bigger than me. If you can look at the bigger picture and you can

see that, it sort of takes a little bit of the pressure off.’ McIlroy ticks many boxes this week. Since his Hoylake heroics in 2014, he has finished fifth, fourth and second in the three Opens he has played. Of his last 16 Open rounds, 14 have been 70 or lower. This season, he has been astonishingly consistent with two wins and nine other top 10 finishes. He currently leads his PGA Tour rivals by over 2.5 strokes per round in the ‘strokes gained’ category, which includes off the tee, tee to green, around the green and putting. Of those with form on links, Jon Rahm can point to two wins and a third place in the last three Irish Opens, the most recent at Lahinch a fortnight ago. Two years ago, the burly Basque stayed in Portrush when he won at Portstewart and, this week, he is staying in Portstewart as he seeks to become the only the second Spanish winner, after his hero, Seve Ballesteros. The world’s elite were given a blast of a typical Irish summer yesterday as a burst of rain and gusting winds battered the links before a reluctant sun appeared late in the evening. McIlroy admitted he ‘let other people’s opinions’ influence his decision to pull out of the Rio Olympics in 2016 and is looking forward to ‘a nice week in Japan’ next year when he will represent Ireland. ‘If I had to look back on my career and not played in one (Olympics), I probably would have regretted it. I wanted to go (Tokyo) for the experience.’ Meanwhile, the R&A are committed to bringing the Open back to Portrush before long and ‘for many years to come.’ With sell-out crowds of 237,650, the 148th Open at Portrush which tees off today, will have the biggest Open attendance outside of the record 239,000 at St Andrews in 2000. Already, the R&A are looking at returning to Portrush sharpish, as they did with Hoylake, who host again in 2022, just eight years after it was re-instated on the rota. ‘I think Hoylake and Portrush are going to be used for Opens for many years to come,’ said Martin Slumbers, CEO of the R&A.