With 7 Days Left For the Open, Rory McIlroy Lacking Past Confidence as Pinehurst Agony Looms

A decade of winning worldwide, yet, none of the victories account for the fifth major for Rory McIlroy. It has been eluding him since he won the 2014 PGA Championship. And that curse followed him on Pinehurst No. 2 as well. Before tackling the difficult course, the Northern Irishman displayed confidence like no other.

He had a strategy in mind and wanted to play methodically. The 4-time major winner was confident enough as he said, “Obviously, getting my hands on a fifth major has taken quite a while. But I’m more confident than ever that I’m right there, that I’m as close as I’ve ever been.” However, that confidence was broken by Bryson DeChambeau as he took away the U.S. Open trophy. It seems that McIlroy has not fully recovered from the loss and the same McIlroy might not be gracing the Royal Troon Golf Club.

Rory McIlroy isn’t getting ready for the 152nd Open

It is the first event Rory McIlroy is playing after the heartbreak at Pinehurst. The 26-time PGA Tour winner has picked up his game where he left it in July and carded 5 under 65 to be T5 on the Genesis Scottish Open leaderboard. In just three days, the Northern Irishman would be moving just miles away to Royal Troon for the last major of the year and his last chance to break the winless major streak.

McIlroy was asked at the press conference if he was doing anything this week that would aid in the potential 5th major win. The answer might be surprising, but McIlroy said, “Not really. Just familiarising myself with a links golf again.” The 35-year-old added he would play a links course after his last stint at the 151st Open, where he finished T6.

So his focus is rather on familiarizing the golf course and the Scottish Open. McIlroy explained that he has been “getting back into how the wind feels. How the club feels through the turf. All that stuff.” Furthermore, he asserted that it was one of the reasons why he wanted to play in the Scottish Open, as it is a great opportunity to reintroduce himself to link courses.

As the defending champion, if the 35-year-old wins the Scottish Open for the third time, it would give him good momentum heading into the 152nd Open Championship. So, it would be like hitting two birds with one stone. But what if this time too, McIlroy misses the chance to get the fifth victory, will he regret it?

Rory McIlroy may not regret winning the fifth major

During the U.S. Open press conference, Rory McIlroy was asked if he would regret not winning the fifth major. After contemplating, the 35-year-old gave a sensible answer, giving Tiger Woods’s career as an example. He explained that as the 82-time major winner has failed to surpass Jack Nicklaus’s major record, would his career be a failure? Not at all. Similarly, McIlroy pressed that there will always be some tinge attached to one’s career, whether it be him or Woods.

However, regardless of the fifth major win, McIlroy asserted that he never would have imagined as a 20-year-old to come so far in his career, and if someone told his old self his achievements, he would be ecstatic. So even if, the fifth major never comes, McIlroy wouldn’t regret his whole career. Rather, he would be proud of it.

And he was hopeful that he still had days in his career to card the major winner, sooner or later. The 35-year-old said, “Whatever those numbers are [at the end of his career], whatever the totals add up to, I’ll accept that and feel like I’ve done pretty well for a little boy from Northern Ireland that dreamed of playing golf for a living one day.” 

Hopefully, McIlroy’s dream to win more majors will come true and it might be at the Royal Troon!