Bjorn backs Rory to be US Open contender

RORY McIlroy can overcome an injury-hit campaign and contend for a second US Open title at Erin Hills this week, according to Ryder Cup captain Thomas Bjorn.

McIlroy’s season has been thrown into disarray by a rib injury suffered during club testing over the winter, which initially kept him sidelined for six weeks after losing a play-off in the SouthAfrican Open.

The world No.2 finished seventh, fourth and seventh in his first three strokeplay events on his return, but a recurrence of the problem during the Players Championship saw him withdraw from the BMW PGA Championship and Memorial Tournament.

That means McIlroy will have played just six events heading into the year’s second Major championship, an event he won in record-breaking style in 2011 but one in which he has since missed the cut twice and recorded a solitary top-10 finish. Asked if the 28-year-old can defy the odds at Erin Hills, Bjorn said: “He can do many things. He would love to have played more.

“He sets his mind on a schedule and that’s what he’s going to try to stick to and then when he can’t do it he suffers a little bit in not getting the right preparation, but then you have to prepare another way.

“Great players adapt to the situation they are in and he is capable of adapting to it.

“It’s never nice to play the biggest events if you haven’t been playing competitive golf, but that isn’t to say he can’t go and do it.”

McIlroy’s absence from the BMW PGA Championship was a blow to the European Tour, but Bjorn believes it was the right decision.

“He was just taking a sensible approach and getting it right before he came back out,” the Dane said.

“I can’t see it being a longterm concern. With the strain he puts on his body he just can’t play with small niggles. The whole world of golf suffers when he’s not around but he’ll get it right I’m sure.”

Bjorn has not competed in the US Open since missing the cut at Olympic Club in 2012, but he will be watching when the action gets under way on Thursday.

“The USGA won’t make it easy for anyone,” he added. “It’s a US Open and sometimes they get it absolutely spot on and sometimes they don’t. Hopefully they get this one right.”