McIlroy seeks magical Scottish summer

Golf

Published: 03 Jul. 2024, 11:02 Updated: 03 Jul. 2024, 18:02

McIlroy seeks magical Scottish summer

Rory McIlroy looks on from the fifth hole during the Genesis Scottish Open at The Renaissance Club on July 13, 2023 in Scotland. [GETTY IMAGES]

Longer days and stretches of great warmth offer a reminder of Mother Nature’s seasonal shifts. As for those lower scores and periods of torrid golf that seem to arrive this time of year, chalk it up to the uncanny skills of Rory McIlroy.

While there is evidence galore that McIlroy is a golfer of all seasons, there’s uncanny proof that he is at his very best when temperatures head northward and his travel from spring to summer follows familiar routes.

In 2022, for instance, McIlroy was runner-up at the Masters, which began a stretch of 11 tournaments in which he won twice (the RBC Canadian Open, thanks to a closing 62, and the Tour Championship). He was top 10 in eight of those 11 tournaments.

One year later, McIlroy was even better in this same time frame. It was a share of seventh place at the PGA Championship that kicked off a run of 10 straight PGA Tour tournaments in which he was top 10.

If you believe that twice is a coincidence, three times is a pattern, then best you settle into the continuation of a productive McIlroy pattern. As he meandered along the 2024 schedule as it entered landed at the RBC Canadian Open, the 35-year-old from Northern Ireland had won twice and finished T-12 in his three previous tournaments.

The wins at the Zurich Class of New Orleans and the Wells Fargo Championship at one of his favorite playgrounds, Quail Hollow Club, indicate that McIlroy is once again heating his game up to match the summer warmth.

Great timing, too, because what stares McIlroy in the face is a stretch of golf that has to bring a smile to his face: The Genesis Scottish Open and The Open Championship in July.

Rory McIlroy tees off on the ninth hole during the Genesis Scottish Open at The Renaissance Club on July 16, 2023 Scotland. [GETTY IMAGES]

Perhaps, the tournament that ignite a little bit of a fire within McIlroy is the Genesis Scottish Open, a tournament jointly sanctioned by the PGA Tour and DP World Tour. To be held July 11-14 at the Renaissance Club, this spirited championship will not only be played the week before The Open Championship at Royal Troon, but it will afford McIlroy the opportunity to revive memories of his stunning win a year ago.

Pushed to the max by a hometown hero, Scottish lad Robert McIntyre, McIlroy trailed by a shot when he finished birdie-birdie to post a stunning win, with the highlight being a stunning 2-iron approach into the last green to set up the win. To many, it was the most indelible memory of the 2023 PGA Tour season and McIlroy wouldn’t argue with you.

“I was just trying to take the scene in (with) everyone around the green,” he said after closing with a 68 for 15-under 265, one clear of McIntyre, who stormed home in 64.

“You know, I get to do this, not for a living, but I get to do this to try and fulfill my boyhood dreams. So, to be on the green in that environment, and the more that you can try to smell the roses along the way, so that’s what I was trying to do.”

Digest those sentiments if you feel compelled to dive into another topic that continues to dog McIlroy. No matter that the career record gets better and better with every stretch of brilliance — he’s up to 26 PGA Tour wins and he’s rattled off at least one win in 13 of his 15 seasons — McIlroy knows the questions will soon be upon him.

“Why have you not been able to win a major since 2014? Are you getting frustrated by such a drought?”

The questions don’t stymie McIlroy. He knows it’s a reflection of his career, how he didn’t win any of his first 10 starts in the majors then won four times over the next 15. When he captured the PGA Championship in 2014, McIlroy owned four major titles, was one away from the career grand slam, and was just 25. It was easy to think that he might make a run at Tiger Woods’ who at that point owned 14 majors.

Rory McIlroy smiles after making a winning birdie putt on the 18th hole green while fans celebrate in the grandstand during the final round of the Genesis Scottish Open at The Renaissance Club on July 16, 2023 in North Berwick, Scotland. [GETTY IMAGES]

But now at 35, the talk is not of double-digit majors; it’s fair to wonder if he’ll win a fifth?

McIlroy, in fact, would set the tone for that sort of conservative approach.

“I’m under no illusion that the clock is ticking and it has been 10 years since I’ve won (of the majors),” he said at the PGA Championship in mid-May. That week ended with a position that has been very familiar to McIlroy in a stretch of 36 majors since winning the PGA in 2014; that is, he was T-6.

Fairly strong. Good, not great. But in contention.

“I just need to keep putting myself in those positions and sooner or later it’s going to happen,” he said.

In his last 36 majors (as of June 1), McIlroy has finished second three times and 10 times he’s finished top five. So the chances have been there and gives him hope. The one that tickles his fancy is The Open Championship July 18-21. McIlroy has been inside the top six in five of the last seven Open Championships, he was raised on links golf, and that fact that he has the chance to build momentum for The Open at the Genesis Scottish Open pleases him greatly.

There’s also the “warm-weather” heater he’s been on in 2024, just as he was in ’22 and ’23. Though he gave McIntyre a bit of a scare in the final round of the RBC Canadian Open, McIlroy couldn’t pull off a repeat of the 2023 Genesis Scottish Open. With a closing 64 for 13-under 267, McIlroy was T-4, three behind McIntrye, but he could walk away with a huge smile.

Rory McIlroy poses for a photo with the Genesis Scottish Open trophy on the 18th green after winning the tournament during Day Four of the Genesis Scottish Open at The Renaissance Club on July 16, 2023 in Scotland. [GETTY IMAGES]

Because his friend and Ryder Cup teammate, McIntyre won. And because McIlroy is once again on a bit of a “heater” — a “1-1-T12-T4 stretch — which helps remind one and all that when he’s in this sort of happy place, McIlroy is virtually a lock to contend.

There was a bit of a rest before the RBC Canadian Open but whatever rust was on his game soon disappeared. A share of fourth place, just three off the lead had him smiling.

“I’m ready to go,” he said in advance of Signature Events, major stops, and a chance to defend his Genesis Scottish Open. “It’s really nice to see some good signs in my game. You want to go into these big tournaments and try to win every single one.”

Chuckle, if you will. But Rory McIlroy is dead serious — and playing well enough to back it up.

BY JIM MCCABE [kjdsports@joongang.co.kr]