Struggling McIlroy is still seeking vital spark
AFTER two missed cuts in a row on links courses that were supposed to get him in the mood for The Open, the only option left for Rory McIlroy yesterday was to head down to Royal Birkdale in a desperate search for a lastminute solution.
The dank mist that hung on the Irish Sea in the distance must have matched his mood. Unlike most players, who would rather go into majors under the radar, Rory likes to be riding the crest of a wave.
Instead, he will begin on Thursday with serious questions being asked about his game from 150 yards in, and grave doubts as to whether his confidence levels at present can survive such a rigorous test as the one provided by the best course in Britain.
Mind you, he is hardly alone among the superstar set in feeling this way. Can anyone remember the last time a major took place with so many of the world’s top-ranked players struggling for form? Good luck to the bookmakers in trying to handicap this one. Suffice to say, this 146th Open is truly open.
It starts at the top, with world No1 Dustin Johnson. Invincible in March, he looked a racing certainty to follow up his US Open win the previous year by claiming the green jacket in April.
Then fate took an ugly turn, as he suffered a freak fall on the eve of the event and pulled up lame on the first morning. Since then, he’s struggled for form.
Remember Jason Day, the Australian who was going to win at least six majors, according to fellow countryman Greg Norman? Burdened rather than emboldened by becoming world No1, he is another who was not a factor in the season’s first two majors. Ditto defending champion Henrik Stenson, who missed the cut in both, making it four players out of the world’s top seven for whom the majors so far have been a complete write-off. Indeed, the only top ten they have mustered between them was McIlroy’s tied seventh finish at the Masters and even that was of the backdoor variety, following a final-round 69. No wonder therefore, that Sir Nick Faldo believes the streak of first-time major winners will be extended to eight in a row with a victory for either of Europe’s two in-form competitors, Jon Rahm or Tommy Fleetwood. With doubts over Johnson, the player leading the American charge might well be Rickie Fowler, who has a game that should fit perfectly with Birkdale’s requirements.
There’s also Jordan Spieth, who won his last tournament in dramatic style with a holed bunker shot at the Travelers Championship, although he will have to drive the ball straighter than he usually does.
Regarding the Aussie contingent, this might be the week we see the re-emergence of Day, although again he will need to drive the ball more accurately than of late, while Marc Leishman might be worth a pound or two for those who like a punt on an outsider.
The last two Opens have been won by men who had turned 40, so do not rule out the wise old heads who struggle most weeks to keep up with golf’s enviable collection of talented, charismatic twentysomethings.
Sergio Garcia might not have reached 40, but he’s wise when it comes to the wiles of links golf.
As for the sport’s main man, McIlroy must have arrived at Birkdale yesterday feeling a veritable weight on his shoulders. He admitted on Friday he needs more competitive rounds but there are none for him to play before the start of The Open on Thursday.
Perhaps he can draw some comfort from another Northern Irishman, who arrived at Royal St George’s in 2011 after a missed cut at the Scottish Open. I had a pint with Darren Clarke at a function on the Monday and believe me, he was so down he sounded like he would rather have walked into the North Sea than to the first tee. The idea he could be Open champion by the end of the week was laughable.
Yet he found something in the build-up, a spark like the one McIlroy went hunting for amidst the dunes of Birkdale yesterday. That is the fickle nature of golf, and why McIlroy cannot be written off this week, even if time and logic are against him.