Nailing par-fives path to Open glory, says Rory

Rory McIlroy has targeted Hoylake’s par-five holes as the keys to a successful Open Championship campaign this weekend as the two-time major winner aims to emulate Tiger Woods’ 2006 success at Royal Liverpool.

The weather may not be baking these links on the Dee estuary the way Woods found them eight years ago, but McIlroy believes it will be the same thing separating the winners and losers this time around come Sunday evening, especially as two of those par-fives come at the 16th and 18th holes.

“I think the par-fives are a big key this week,” McIlroy said. “If you look back at ’06, I think Tiger played the par-fives in 14 under par. So the majority of his scoring was done on the par-fives.