Rory McIlroy backs Muirfield for Open return despite ‘lowest point’ in 2013

Muirfield last staged The Open in 2013

Rory McIlroy missed the cut when The Open was staged at Muirfield in 2013. Pic: AP Photo/Altaf Qadri

Rory McIlroy has endorsed Muirfield’s case for an Open revival despite reaching a golfing nadir there when the major was last staged at the Scottish links in 2013.

McIlroy famously declared he felt “unconscious” and “brain dead” while en route to a missed cut in East Lothian 13 years ago. The refusal of the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers to admit women – a scenario that changed in 2017 – and the low attendance at Muirfield on that last visit played a part in the absence of the Open. Yet the venue is still rightly regarded as one of the finest in the world.