Concerns have been raised about Rory McIlroy after he admitted struggling with the wind direction over the weekend at the Scottish Open.
McIlroy played well enough for most of the week at The Renaissance Club to win the event at a canter. However, his shortened Saturday round put too much of a dent in his chances.
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Tom Kim, Johnny Keefer, and Michael Thorbjornsen all finished inside the top 10 at the Scottish Open
The Northern Irishman was three over par for the eight holes he managed to play on Saturday. Remarkably, he matched the first, second, and final round scores of eventual winner Tom Kim.
Concerns raised about Rory McIlroy after his third round at the Scottish Open
It did appear that McIlroy’s game was not quite as sharp as it would have been had he been playing a full PGA Tour schedule in 2026. There were a handful of sloppy mistakes, particularly on Saturday, that seemed to come from nowhere.
But it seems that the problem was not actually a new one. McIlroy spoke of his need to practice in a right to left wind ahead of The Open Championship at Royal Birkdale after his final round on Sunday.
And speaking on the Golf Channel Podcast, Rex Hoggard suggested that he is somewhat baffled that one particular wind direction seems to cause McIlroy so many issues.
“He always goes back to the right to left wind on the range. He’s talked about this a couple of times over the course of this season. I think it came up at The Players Championship, and this has been something he’s talked about. And every player has a tendency, and I understand that,” he said.
“For him to be cruising like he was, he got off to an almost flawless start, and to completely unravel on the first nine of that third round, he was four over par through nine holes, didn’t come close to making a birdie, it was just an ugly nine holes.
“He seemed to right the ship a little bit coming down the stretch, but it is concerning when you have a player that’s so talented, that’s accomplished so much in his career, and something as simple as the wind’s not coming from the right direction on the range, I always find that interesting because it’s not something you would hear from a Tiger Woods or I’ll even point to another player of that calibre, Ernie Els, it’s not something you even think about.
“So I’m curious if Rory’s mindset is less about blaming it on something that’s wrong with his swing and just blaming it on the circumstances.”
Rory McIlroy in a strong position heading into The Open Championship
While McIlroy has always built his year around what is going to help him most when the majors arrive, there is a sense in 2026 that the four biggest events of the year have become an even greater priority.
The Scottish Open was only his seventh start on the PGA Tour this year outside of the majors. And the focus would have largely been on what was going to boost his chances of lifting the Claret Jug at Royal Birkdale in the coming days.
The needless errors in North Berwick may worry some. However, speaking on the same podcast, Ryan Lavner insisted that, despite his struggles with the wind, he has seen enough to be optimistic about McIlroy’s chances at the final major of the year.
“This is a months long issue that he has now had. I remember him saying it at The Players Championship, he said it at Augusta at The Masters. I remember him talking about it at the Truist Championship. He talked about it again at Shinnecock for the US Open. And now here he is, even across the pond, talking about when he has the into right to left wind, which, again, as a right-hander, is nightmare fuel because you either hang back and flip it, or if you’re me, you hang back and hit it off the planet,” he said.
“Rory’s tendency, he said, is to keep aiming more and more left, and all of a sudden his face is shut and he starts pulling it left, particularly with his irons. I thought it was actually a pretty encouraging week for Rory off the tee. And keep in mind, Rory doesn’t even have enough rounds to qualify for PGA Tour statistics, but it has not been a great driving year by his very lofty standards.
“He obviously won The Masters in spite of continually missing the fairway, especially on the par fives. He led the field in strokes gained off the tee at The Renaissance Club. It’s going to be important to put the ball in play off the tee at Birkdale because of the bunker positioning. And we talked about the rough that awaits some of the errant tee shots, so I thought that part was promising, but he certainly needs to clean up the iron play. That was the reason he eventually finished five shots back of Tom Kim.
“With three days of prep that he can now get on site, he’s already taken a reconnaissance trip to Birkdale a couple of weeks ago, was interrupted in that practice round by Nick Faldo, I think Rory is actually in pretty good shape.”
McIlroy has finished inside the top 10 in three of his last four starts at The Open. Many will be expecting him to at least extend that run in Southport.
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