ɫɫ��

So joyous was that moment for McIlroy that he figured anything else he achieved in his career would be gravy.

“That very well could be the highlight of my career,” McIlroy said of his Masters green jacket and all that came with it.

There very well could be one more — golf’s oldest trophy on McIlroy’s home soil. The 153rd edition of the British Open returns to Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland on July 17-20. There might not be a better way for McIlroy to conclude a most unforgettable season.

Unlike the Masters at Augusta National, where he returned every April, chances to win a major on home soil don’t come along very often for McIlroy. Irish eyes were on McIlroy in 2019 at Royal Portrush, and saw his spirited rally to make the cut fall just short.

For McIlroy, this is no ordinary British Open.

“If venues in golf matter to you, it maybe puts a little bit more pressure on you,” he said.

From the emotional side of it, he thought about Novak Djokovic winning Olympic gold in tennis last year in what he knew would be his final chance. That was about timing. This is location, playing before the largest crowd to see golf on the Emerald Isle, celebrating the sixth and most recent winner of the career Grand Slam, and high hopes for their favorite son in golf.

“You think about it, and you can’t pretend that it’s not there,” McIlroy said. “But when you are on the golf course, you just have to go out there and play as if you’re not playing at home, and just play as if it’s another golf tournament.

“But yeah, it obviously is a little more,” he said. “It has a little more emphasis. There’s something extra there.”

For most everyone else, the emphasis is on the the last chance of the year to win a major. Scottie Scheffler, still the betting favorite as the No. 1 player in the world, goes after his second major this year and the third leg of the Grand Slam. Defending champion Xander Schauffele is still trying to catch up from a rib injury that kept him out for two months.

The optimism in April going into a full slate of majors has given way to a little more urgency in July knowing there will be nearly nine months before the next chance.

“It depends on how you played in the first three,” Justin Thomas said. “Someone like me who hasn’t played very well it’s like, ‘OK, I need to play well to make sure this year isn’t a complete dud.’ Maybe if you’re Scottie or Rory, you’d love to play well but they’ve won a major this year.’”

It’s very different for McIlroy.

Even the four times McIlroy has played the Irish Open in his homeland haven’t gone that well — missed cuts at Royal County Down in 2015 and Portstewart in 2017, a tie for 10th at Royal Portrush in 2012 and then a real crusher last year, losing a late lead at Royal County Down to Rasmus Hojgaard.

But this is the Open, and McIlroy has a score to settle from the last one at Royal Portrush. So much hype, so many expectations, and he had a quadruple-bogey 8 on his card after one hole. He shot 79, and nearly recovered until missing a birdie on his last hole for a 65 to miss the cut by a single shot.

The pressure doesn’t go away, but Adam Scott senses something different, a comfort that a Masters green jacket brings McIlroy.

“There’s no doubt he knows what is hoped for him,” Scott said. “Having won the career slam earlier this year, I think he goes in — even with all that expectation — with some freedom and probably a calmness. I imagine he’ll have a much more sense of calmness and be able to enjoy it, which would lead to good golf — which is bad for all of us.”

This will be a stage like no other across the Irish Sea.

Royal Portrush went 68 years without holding the British Open, and 2019 was such a big success — Shane Lowry of Ireland delivered a sterling performance in rough weather to win by six shots — that it was awarded another Open just six years later.

The R&A said there will be 278,000 spectators for the week, making it the second-largest crowd for an Open behind St. Andrews, which had 290,000 fans in 2022. That’s 40,000 more spectators than Royal Portrush had in 2019.

Scheffler is playing the British Open for only the fifth time and he has yet to register much success in links golf, never finishing within five shots of the winner.

“I think one of the things that surprises us is the way turf is over here,” Scheffler said. “I played in a lot of wind growing up at home. You grow up in Texas, you play in wind all the time, but the wind affects the ball differently because of the turf. This turf is a little bit spinier than the turf at home. I kind of had to adjust a little bit to take a little bit more spin off the ball, to take more club, take more spin off, just because of the way turf is here.”

Schauffele will try to become only the fourth player in the last 50 years to win the claret jug in consecutive years, joining Padraig Harrington (2007-08), Tiger Woods (2005-06) and Tom Watson (1982-83). It’s an exclusive list.

McIlroy, meanwhile, knows a thing or two about exclusive lists. He joined the best one of them all by winning the Masters. It was a lifetime dream come true, a moment he believes might be as good as it gets. Four days at Royal Portrush might put that to the test.

___

AP golf: