McIlroy was asked about his preferred destination for the 2028 Open Championship…

Rory McIlroy says it “could have been the lowest point of my professional career.”

In the 2013 Open Championship at Muirfield, a 24-year-old McIlroy felt “unconscious” and “brain dead” as he posted +12 across his 36 holes – missing the cut in the game’s oldest major for the first time.

He was lost all those years ago around the East Lothian links, battling both his mental game and a rough transition to Nike golf clubs during a rare fallow period in his storied career.

Many, therefore, would forgive McIlroy for being reluctant to revisit ghosts of the past in his pursuit of another Claret Jug.

“I’ve won an Open since then,” he told reporters at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic, where he failed to make inroads on Patrick Reed’s lead with a third round 71. “2013 feels like a lifetime ago.”

The Masters champion also knows Muirfield is a “wonderful course.” It has not staged the major since Phil Mickelson snatched victory in the year of McIlroy’s meltdown, and many within the game believe it is high time the Open returned for a 17th occasion.

McIlroy was asked about the candidature of both Muirfield and Royal Lytham as potential venues after upcoming visits to both Royal Birkdale and St Andrews.

“It would be very early to bring an Open back to that region in 2028,” he said about quick return to England’s North West coast with Lytham, which is 30 miles from Birkdale.

“Muirfield, they obviously rectified the issues that they had.”

Indeed, a barrier to the course returning as host was lifted in 2017 when Muirfield’s members – the so-called Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers – voted to allow women to join the club.

“It’s one of the best courses on the rota and in the UK,” McIlroy said. “But I think, as well, it has to commercially make sense. I think [new R&A chief executive] Mark Darbon has been brought in to make The Open Championship commercially viable.  

“I would say Muirfield – that North Berwick area – would probably be one of the more commercially viable Opens. It would be wonderful if it was.  I’m not privy to those conversations but Muirfield deserves to be back on The Open rota.”

Darbon might argue that Muirfield is technically not off the Open rota. The R&A have been in talks with the venue for a while now, but logistical issues remain.

There were 142,000 people in attendance during the 2013 tournament, but the Open has become a sporting behemoth and the standard has been set at around 250,000 tickets in recent years. It is assumed Muirfield will need to make change to enable these kinds of numbers through the gates.

The Renaissance Club, just down the road from Muirfield, also has a deal in place to stage the Genesis Scottish Open – typically held on the week prior to the Open – until 2030.

“We love the golf course at Muirfield,” Darbon said last summer. “We’re in discussions with the venue right now. There are some things we need to evolve at Muirfield, the practice ground in particular is a challenge for us with a modern Open.

“And there’s some work to facilitate some infrastructure we need, but there’s some good dialogue and we’d love to go back there in the future.”