Rory McIlroy expects Tommy Fleetwood to not make the same mistake he made at the 2019 Open Championship and get overawed by the occasion.
Of course, there is huge attention on Fleetwood this week, with Royal Birkdale set to host the final major of the season over the coming days.
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The Englishman grew up just a few minutes away from the iconic Southport venue. So he will certainly be the most popular player in the eyes of those outside the ropes.
Rory McIlroy backs Tommy Fleetwood to handle the pressure at The Open Championship
It almost feels as though it would be too perfect for Fleetwood to be the one who is lifting the Claret Jug on Sunday evening.
He is yet to win a major, while Birkdale has changed significantly over the last few years. So it would be an incredible achievement if Fleetwood could triumph.
Rory McIlroy has a good idea of what Fleetwood will be going through, having played two Open Championships at Royal Portrush during his career. Portrush is around 75 minutes away from Holywood, where McIlroy was a member.
Unfortunately, the dream became a nightmare for McIlroy back in 2019. He missed the cut after opening up with a round of 79.
In his press conference ahead of Thursday’s opening round, McIlroy was asked about the pressure that Tommy Fleetwood, as well as Justin Rose and Matt Fitzpatrick will be feeling.
“For me luckily, it was my second time at playing at home. I felt like I handled the second time a little better than the first. But it is; it’s a tough environment. It’s a great environment but tough in a way that you just feel the extra expectation on your shoulders, and you feel like you’re trying to play well for everyone else and not for yourself,” he said.
“I think there’s already enough pressure on anyone in this field to play well for themselves, so to add that extra layer on top of that is always pretty difficult. Yeah, like Tommy coming back here, for example, he grew up five minutes away, but I feel like Tommy’s more level-headed than I am and he won’t fall into that trap like I did in 2019. It always seems like it takes me one go round to get it right.
“It will be interesting to see. I’m playing with Matt tomorrow, but I think a lot of those guys are pretty level-headed, and they’ll go out there and stick to their routines and do their thing, and it will be great. It would be great for them all to have a great week because obviously with England in the World Cup still and everything that’s going on, it would just be an amazing atmosphere for the tournament.”
How Rory McIlroy reacted to his nightmare opening round at Royal Portrush
McIlroy is the greatest golfer of his generation. He has won six major titles and completed the Career Grand Slam.
However, it is hard to think of a more anticlimactic round than that Thursday at Royal Portrush. McIlroy made an eight on the first after hitting his opening tee shot out of bounds.
Meanwhile, he concluded his round with a triple bogey seven. And at the time, he admitted that the pressure got to him completely.
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“When you play your first and last holes in a combined seven over par you’re making life tough for yourself,” he said, as reported by Sky Sports. “I was understandably nervous on the first tee and it obviously wasn’t the ideal start.
“But after that I felt like I battled back, showed some resilience with a couple of birdies at the end of the front nine and then held it together in some pretty tough conditions at the start of the back nine.
“I lost concentration a little bit after the missed par putt on 16 and then hit a tee shot a couple off the fairway at the last and got a dreadful lie. The support was fantastic out there for me today.”
Everything that could have gone wrong for McIlroy that day seven years ago did go wrong. Hopefully, Fleetwood will feel that he at least has a chance after the conclusion of Thursday’s round.
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