Rory McIlroy commits to 2023 Irish Open at The K Club

COMMMITTED: Rory McIlroy and JP McManus at Adare Manor. Pic: ©INPHO/Morgan Treacy

Rory McIlroy has vowed to tee it up in the Horizon Irish Open at The K Club next year and try and replicate his stunning 2016 win there.

The world number two skipped this year’s event at Mount Juliet last week as he had just played four events in a row up to the US Open at Brookline and also planned to fulfil his commitment to this week’s JP McManus Pro-am in Adare.

"I’ll play the Irish Open next year,” McIlroy said at Adare Manor. "This year it was just going to be hard for me because I had already committed to four in a row in the States and then knowing that I was playing in this event.

"My attitude towards it is, okay I’m not playing the Irish Open but I’m still going be playing in Ireland around the same time and I’m going to try and go out there and play in front of the Irish fans.

"So they are still getting an opportunity to come out and watch me and all the others play.

"So that was my attitude this year. But next year I’m not going to do that four in a row stretch in June.

"So I will have a week off after the U.S. Open most likely and then I’ll come back and play at The K Club. That’s the plan.” 

McIlroy has played 13 Irish Opens, 12 of them as a professional but had just two top-10 finishes on his CV before he closed with eagles at the 16th and 18th to win by three shots from Bradley Dredge at the 2006 Ryder Cup course six years ago.

As for two-time IRISH OPEN champion Jon Rahm, the Spaniard wants to come back to chase a third win that would see him match idol Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo, Bernard Langer and Colin Montgomerie but he was noncommittal about when that will be.

He followed his 2017 win at Portstewart with another victory at Lahinch in 2019 but while he promised to defend at Mount Juliet in 2020, COVID intervened and he didn’t travel to Galgorm Castle, which stepped in to host that year due to restrictions south of the border.

"Faldo won three? I didn't know,” Rahm said. "It's tough to say now the scheduling and family now is getting a bit more in the way.

"I want to come back. I definitely want to come back. I can't tell you, I mean, I don't know what I'm going to do after the Playoffs, really, let alone what I'm going to be doing next summer.

"Yeah, I love playing in Ireland. I will be back some day.”