Home’s where the heart is for McIlroy

THE Dubai Desert Classic and the Quail Hollow Championship are two of the most prestigious tournaments on the European and US PGA Tours. Both have been won by Rory McIlroy and yet he considers a victory in this week’s 3 Irish Open would rank even higher on his list of golfing achievements.

“I wouldn’t put it ahead of a major but to win in front of your home crowd would be very special,” he said at yesterday’s launch of the EA Sports video game in which he takes the lead role for the first time.

“Pádraig did it at Adare and Shane did it last year at Baltray. It would be very nice to keep that trend going and I would definitely put it ahead of the two that I’ve won, even though they were obviously very major milestones.”