Rory McIlroy gets in the zone for return to Irish Open

McIlroy's 2016 Irish Open victory came in similarly parkland surroundings at the K Club and Mount Juliet was offering the same vibes when he played it for the first time in his life today

Rory McIlroy plays a practice round ahead of the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open at Mount Juliet. (Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images)

Rory McIlroy disembarked his overnight flight from New York and went straight into tournament mode at Mount Juliet as his preparations for the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open began in Co. Kilkenny.

And if the four-time major winner hits the ground in equally smart fashion at his national open this weekend, who knows where it may lead him in the coming weeks. The 32-year-old this week returns to the European Tour event he helped to rescue from a sponsor-less decline eight years ago and which he hosted for four years but skipped in 2019 and 2020.

His decision to play again should be applauded given this event on the pristine but parkland layout at Mount Juliet is hardly the best prep for the links he will face at Royal St George’s in three weeks at the 149th Open.

McIlroy has added next week’s Scottish Open at the Renaissance Club, Muirfield’s next-door neighbour, to his schedule in order to tick that box but there is logic in this unusual major lead-in and he was in positive mood about it Tuesday afternoon following nine holes of practice having touched down in Dublin at 5:15am.

His 2016 Irish Open victory came in similarly parkland surroundings at the K Club and Mount Juliet was offering the same vibes when he played it for the first time in his life on Tuesday, albeit in much warmer, drier conditions than five years ago.

Furthermore, McIlroy is looking forward to carrying on where he left off at the US Open a fortnight ago, where though his tie for seventh at Torrey Pines was not a vintage finish it left him encouraged that the swing renovations he is undertaking with new coach Pete Cowen are beginning to bear fruit.

“I felt in control of my game on Sunday (at the US Open) and there have been sometimes when I haven’t felt completely in control of what I’ve been doing out there, especially when it’s a pretty high-pressure situation like the final round of a major.

“So that was very encouraging, hitting some of the shots that I hit and just the feeling I had out there. I came off the course obviously disappointed with the way I finished but very encouraged by just sort of how I felt out there.

“I tried to spend as much time as possible with the family last week before coming here so I didn’t practice that much but I don’t think it’s going to leave me in a week. I hit a few balls and played nine holes today and it feels pretty good.”

McIlroy will reconvene with Cowen in Scotland next week and speaking to RTÉ, he said: “It’s the first time in a while where I’ve had the same consistent three swing thoughts for like a while.

“For the last year or so it felt like trying something for a few weeks, go away from it, try something else, whereas it’s nice to have some consistency in the thought process that you’re going through, which makes practice a lot easier because you know you got there, you do your drills you’re supposed to do and you feel like you’ve had a good session. There’s a way to quantify that you’ve actually improved, that you’ve done what you’ve wanted to do. So it’s been good.

“At the start it took a while, at Quail Hollow (where he won on the PGA Tour for the first time this year in May) it probably didn’t feel quite as good as it does now but every week it just feels a little more comfortable.”

In his press conference, McIlroy added of Cowen: “Scotland we might work on a couple things. But by the time The Open comes around, it’s just a matter of me doing my thing and basically hopefully giving him nothing to say. At that point I should be playing well, and everything should be on the right track. But I’ve got a decent week here to hopefully play well and get myself back into the sort of form I was in in the US Open and go from there.”

The world number 10 will start as favourite this week at the course he first visited as a teenage spectator for the two World Golf Championships held there in 2002 and 2004. They produced stellar winners in Tiger Woods and then Ernie Els while the three Irish Opens staged here a decade earlier between 2004-06 were won by Sam Torrance, Bernhard Langer, and Nick Faldo. It would be good company to join.

“The last time I was on the 18th green here was during the prize ceremony when Tiger won,” McIlroy recalled, “and I remember I somehow sneaked my way like under the rope onto the back of the green, and I was standing right behind him and his glove was still in his back pocket. And like I could have reached and got it and ran; it would have been a good story to tell him but I obviously didn’t.

“It was the first time I ever watched Tiger play live. I remember the first shot I ever saw him hit was a drive off the 5th hole, the par five, and he hit a 2-iron into the green. It was really cool. I idolised him growing up and to actually see the man in the flesh was pretty exciting.

“And then in 2004, I was sort of — I had sort of made a name for myself in the amateur scene at that point and I had gotten to know Chubby (Chandler, his first manager) and Darren (Clarke) and stuff, so I was a little more ... I remember being in the clubhouse and stuff and meeting Ernie after he won. Had a little more access then.

“But yeah, really good memories coming down here watching. It’s amazing that it’s been 17 years and the tournament hasn’t been back since. Glad to be back and certainly a lot’s changed in the last 17 years since the last time I was here.”