Any Portstewart in a storm as Rory confronts those putting demons
With the home hero in the horrors on the greens, this week’s Irish Open could give a timely boost ahead of Birkdale
AFTER a missed cut, and too many missed putts, in his last two events in America, Rory McIlroy is back on home turf this week, desperately seeking a spark to ignite his year. Without a win in 2017, and without much golf either, he is seriously undercooked as he prepares for a three-week links swing embracing the Irish Open at Portstewart, the Scottish Open at Dundonald and the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale.
He needs a win, any win, to end a fallow run which has seen him slip from second to fourth in the world rankings and go through more putters than Seve Ballesteros did caddies.
McIlroy used three different putters at the Travelers Championship last week and only halfjoked about borrowing another from his father, Gerry, in an effort to find something that works. A bright man, McIlroy junior knows the art of putting is all in the mind and that he can also hold his own with the world’s elite when he’s on his blow on the greens.
Should he slip into the groove on the slick Portstewart surfaces in the coming days, his world will feel a lot familiar again. It needs to, for he is no longer the dominating figure of the summer of 2014 when Jack Nicklaus predicted he would win ‘15 to 20’ majors – prior to his victory in the US PGA at Valhalla.
That was major No 4 for McIlroy, and after lifting the huge Wanamaker Trophy aloft, he said he was targeting Nick Faldo’s mark of six to become the most successful European golfer in the modern era.
No one dared question his optimism yet, almost three years on, he is still on four majors and hasn’t had a real sniff of a fifth.
In the interim, 10 majors have come and gone, with Jordan Spieth claiming a brace, before a cluster of first-timers – including Sergio Garcia and Bruce Koepka this year – seized their moment.
Spieth’s win last Sunday was his 10th PGA Tour title and reminded the golfing world that he hasn’t gone away; it’s high time McIlroy did something similar.
He is used to being in the spotlight wherever he plays but this week is different on three levels. It’s his national Open, he’s the defending champion and also the tournament host.
The latter takes up a chunk of his time, and he is overseeing a major fund-raiser for the Rory Foundation in Belfast on Tuesday where Pep Guardiola, the Manchester City manager, is a special guest.
With a glitzy Pro-Am to come on Wednesday, there is an aura of showbiz about the event again. He was primarily responsible for dusting off the cobwebs and dragging it out of the shadows.
Three years ago at Fota Island, himself, Graeme McDowell and Stephen Gallacher were the only players ranked in the top 50 competing in a €2m run-of-themill event with no sponsor.
This week, there are four players in the world’s top 13 and 10 in the top 40 all jostling for a slice of the record €7m bounty which includes a first prize in excess of €1m.
It is all a far cry from the £150 won by George Duncan in the inaugural Irish Open in 1927.
McIlroy’s involvement encouraged Dubai Duty Free to come in as tournament backers, while the Irish Open is among eight elite events which make up the European Tour’s Rolex Series. A further plus, also due to McIlroy’s influence, is the return to a midsummer slot after the chills and squalls of May 2015 at Royal County Down and last year at The K Club.
Alas, the weather forecast for the week ahead is indifferent. Even so, little has been left to chance and members of Portstewart reckon the visiting professionals have nothing more to worry about than the slippy floors in the men’s shower room.
For McIlroy, it will be about staying sure foot from flag fall on Thursday. When he starts well, he tends to win; when he doesn’t, he struggles.
Of his 22 wins as a professional, he has broken 70 on 19 occasions in his opening round and never carded higher than a 72.
His opening 67 in the Travelers Championship should have positioned him for a run at the title but his Friday round was a shocker, not so much with the mallet Spider putter which he discarded afterwards, but with his wedge play.
On three holes, the 11th, 12th and 14th, he failed to find the green from the sort of distance where he is usually deadly accurate. He will need to be dialled in a lot better this week as he seeks to join an elite club, all Ryder Cup captains by coincidence, to retain the Irish Open title – Mark James, Ballesteros, Ian Woosnam, Faldo and Colin Montgomerie. Of those, Faldo was out on his own as triple champion between 1991 and ’93.
If McIlroy is to become a member of that club and match Harry Bradshaw (1947 and ’49) as the only Irish dual winner of the championship, he will have to be at his best for the opposition is exceptional.
Hideki Matsuyama, runner-up in the US Open last month, is the world No 2; big-hitting Jon Rahm No 11, one ahead of Justin Rose, the Olympic gold medallist and 2013 US Open champion.
Tommy Fleetwood, fourth in Erin Hills, is on the cusp of the world’s top 20 while two of Europe’s better Ryder Cup performers in Hazeltine, Thomas Pieters and Rafa Cabrera Bello, are being talked of as future major winners.
The Spaniard has an outstanding Irish Open links record, finishing second to Jamie Donaldson in Royal Portrush in 2012, and a shot off the play-off when Soren Kjeldsen won at Royal County Down in 2015.
The stellar field also includes Lee Westwood, the former world No 1, Danny Willett, the 2016 Masters champion, as well as Europe’s Ryder Cup talisman Ian Poulter.
Padraig Harrington, McDowell and Darren Clarke, are all major winners, while Shane Lowry aspires to join them.
But McIlroy, for all his inconsistency this year, sets the standard and is the man to beat. ‘The Irish Open is a big one for me. If I can hole a few more putts, I should be right up there,’ he said.
There have been 11 Irish Opens staged in Northern Ireland thus far. The strength of the field this week, coupled with an the outstanding venue among the Derry dunes, points to a glorious 12th.