Rory McIlroy has suggested that he would love to see Tommy Fleetwood go on and win The Open Championship if he is not able to on Sunday.
McIlroy appears to have left himself with just a little too much work to do having finished his third round at Royal Birkdale at two under par for the week.
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What will certainly not help McIlroy’s chances of lifting the Claret Jug for a second time is the fact that there are so many names above him on the leaderboard.
Rory McIlroy backs Tommy Fleetwood to win The Open Championship
The likes of Ryan Fox, Sam Burns, and Lucas Herbert are all looking to win their first major championship this week. And the trio have all put their names into the record books with rounds of 62 in Southport.
But of course, many of those in attendance at Royal Birkdale want to see Tommy Fleetwood get across the line at the final major of the year.
It turns out that Rory McIlroy is amongst them, with the Northern Irishman suggesting that his Ryder Cup teammate would be his first choice to win if he is going to miss out.
“First of all he is an amazing player and person. I think his level headedness out on the golf course will help him with what he is going through with the support,” he said.
“The support is amazing, it’s such a cool feeling to have all that support going around but at the same time it can feel like a bit of a burden because you are trying to do it for yourself but for them too.
“But he keeps it pretty even keel out there. There would not be one person in the locker room who would not be happy for Tommy if he was able to get it done. I would certainly wait around for it tomorrow if it wasn’t me.
“I feel like I have to be somewhat impartial being a player but at the same time you want the good guys to win and Tommy is definitely one of those.”
Rory McIlroy vindicated for his comments about Tommy Fleetwood before The Open began
Heading into the tournament, it almost seemed too perfect to have Fleetwood win a first major at a golf course that is minutes away from where he grew up.
With over 150 players in the field, it was always going to be a monumental task for Fleetwood to secure a victory.
Unfortunately, Fleetwood has had a reputation for not winning the biggest prizes individually, with just one PGA Tour victory under his belt.
But speaking ahead of the tournament, McIlroy backed Fleetwood to handle the pressure much better than he did when Royal Portrush hosted The Open back in 2019.
Fleetwood is certainly proving McIlroy right so far. But it is hard to imagine how intense the pressure is going to be if the Englishman is still in the mix down the stretch on Sunday.
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