The Genesis Scottish Open at The Renaissance Club marks the start of a significant two-week golfing stretch for Rory McIlroy, but he has different goals than most fans realize.
The temptation is to think that McIlroy is in Scotland to get ready for The Open Championship at Royal Liverpool (Hoylake), where he will attempt to end a nine-year major championship drought. McIlroy did not play in Scotland last season. After all, he last won a major on that course in 2014.
As it turns out, there are more factors at play.
McIlroy, 34, hasn’t played since finishing seventh at the Travellers Championship on June 25. He wants to shake off the rust, but he also takes pride in being a world-class athlete.
He became just the second player to win both the PGA TOUR’s FedExCup and the DP World Tour’s Race to Dubai in the same season last year. ( He has also won the FedExCup three times in a row and the Race to Dubai four times ).
After winning the Hero Dubai Desert Classic in January and placing second in the U.S. Open the previous month, he is currently in the lead of the Race to Dubai once more.
With 8 top-10 PGA TOUR results, including a victory AT THE CJ CUP in South Carolina last autumn, he is also ranked 8 on the FedexCup list.
He claimed that since both tours now jointly sanction the Genesis Scottish Open, he didn’t want to miss it.
“There is a chance to win some favor on both sides of the pond. attempting to reclaim the season-long crowns on both sides as we near the end of the year. I feel like I’m sort of killing a couple birds with one stone this week” said McIlroy, who will be making his seventh start in this competition and his first since it was given co-sanctioning.
Even though he’s on a streak of five straight top-10 finishes on the PGA TOUR, he said, taking three weeks off wouldn’t be the best preparation for The Open. His previous seven-straight winning streak occurred in the latter part of 2019 and early 2020 when he added two victories and returned to the top of the world rankings.
Fans will soon hear a lot about his lengthy absence from the top leagues. McIlroy shot 70 and finished second despite being in contention to win the 150th Open Championship at St. Andrews last summer. He made 16 pars in the final round. The same 16 pars and a score of 70 were made at the U.S. Open last month at the L.A. Country Club to finish in second place.
He told his agent as he left the course, “It was St. Andrews all over again.”
Tiger-like runs were predicted after McIlroy’s four major victories before the age of 25, but he hasn’t achieved that feat since. The wait has perhaps been made more difficult by the fact that he has been so close, with six top-10 finishes in his last seven major appearances.
Really, I’m as close as I’ve ever been. My recent performances have been consistently better than they have been in the past few years, especially in the majors. I’m therefore really happy about it, but at the same time, I remember having a great chance in L.A. a few weeks ago, as well as in St. Andrews.
He was unable to overcome a cold putter in both situations.
“Obviously, I need to keep placing myself in those situations, and the more times I do it, whether it’s in St. Andrews or Los Angeles, the better,” he said.
It would be an amazing experience in and of itself if he were to win in Scotland, which would be his first victory on any tour since January.
