PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland—Viewed from the fairway, Rory McIlroy’s eagle on the 12th hole Saturday was captivating theater. It seemed too slow for the longest time as it trickled to the ridge just a few feet from the hole, but it hit the downslope at the perfect speed, the energy and anticipation built to a crest, and when it fell, the roar was hair-raising. Even Rory’s reaction was perfect—somewhat muted, with just a fist raised to the crowd, an abbreviated fist pump, and a raised putter. The fans were the swirling energy, and he was the solid center of the storm.
“It’s one of the largest roars I’ve ever heard on a golf course,” in one of the five questions allotted to the written press.
As for the larger round, there are two prevailing views on what he accomplished. On one hand, he managed to achieve what felt like the bare minimum necessary to have a semi-serious shot at winning the Claret Jug on Sunday—he birdied three of his four holes, including a 36-footer on one that acted like a defibrillator jump-starting his round, and finished with a 66 to rise from 3 under to 8 under and finish in a tie for fourth. (In the midst of that, on 11, he also hit one of the strangest shots of his career, where a hidden second ball popped up in the wake of the first.) He’ll be in the second-to-last group, paired with Matt Fitzpatrick.
Then there’s the less glowing view, which is that the man he and the rest of the chase pack are behind is Scottie Scheffler, World no. 1, and Rory has to spot him six shots on a course that has looked mighty defenseless against the American who has won the last seven times he held a 54-hole lead.
Warren Little
“He’s playing like Scottie,” McIlroy said, the sigh in his voice implicit. “I don’t think it’s a surprise. Everyone’s seen the way he’s played or plays over the last two or three years. He’s just so solid. He doesn’t make mistakes…whenever you’re trying to chase down a guy like that, it’s hard to do. But he’s incredibly impressive.”
There have been larger Sunday comebacks than six strokes. Justin Thomas overcame a seven-shot deficit just three years ago at the PGA Championship, Jackie Burke Jr. clawed back eight strokes at the ’56 Masters, and most memorably, Paul Lawrie erased a ten-shot gap at the ’99 Open, courtesy of Jean Van de Velde’s 72nd hole collapse. But while those might sound like comforting examples on the surface, the bogey man McIlroy is fighting comes with an aura of stability that feels impregnable; temperamentally, there is an ocean between a player like Scheffler and Van de Velde. And on that front, it almost felt like McIlroy had to do better than 66 on Saturday, unreasonable as that standard may be.
Nevertheless, he’ll have one advantage that Scheffler can’t claim on Sunday, which is the extremely loud support of his home nation. After shooting a 79 here in the first round in 2019 and missing the cut, Rory vowed to be more “open” to the love he knew he’d feel from the gallery, and the results have borne out that approach. At several points Saturday, particularly after the long putts on 1 and 12, the volume of the supporters was deafening, and even in the quiet moment, rogue cries of “Rory!” range out on the course…even in groups that didn’t feature Rory McIlroy. If he can make any inroads into Scheffler’s lead tomorrow, he’ll be buoyed by fans that go beyond “partisan” and will shower him with a favoritism that might be worth a critical stroke or two.
He’ll need everything he can get. On Saturday night he’ll eat dinner, maybe watch the next hour of Oppenheimer, which he started Friday night, and distract himself via any means necessary until he can sleep. And on Sunday, with the ability to ignite tens of thousands of fans on the north coast of Ireland, he’ll dig down and reach for the rare magic that might stall, for a moment, the relentless march of the best player since Tiger Woods.
Is it the British Open or the Open Championship? The name of the final men’s major of the golf season is a subject of continued discussion. The event’s official name, as explained in this op-ed by former R&A chairman Ian Pattinson, is the Open Championship. But since many United States golf fans continue to refer to it as the British Open, and search news around the event accordingly, Golf Digest continues to utilize both names in its coverage.
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This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
