{"id":653948,"date":"2026-06-23T12:17:27","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T12:17:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/653948\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T12:17:27","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T12:17:27","slug":"rory-mcilroy-looking-forward-to-hitting-the-links-ahead-of-open-challenge-at-royal-birkdale-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/653948\/","title":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy looking forward to hitting the links ahead of Open challenge at Royal Birkdale \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

What\u2019s next for Rory McIlroy<\/a>? In skipping this week\u2019s Travelers Championship \u2013 the last of the $20 million PGA Tour signature events, which means he has missed three of those tournaments \u2013 the Northern Irishman has opted to spend the next couple of weeks focusing on playing links golf ahead of the 154th Open at Royal Birkdale.<\/p>\n

That final Major of the year for the men takes place at the Merseyside links on July 16th-19th, with McIlroy teeing up in the Genesis Scottish Open at the Renaissance the week beforehand, a model he has used in recent years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s my favourite time of the year, to go back home and play, play The Open, and get to spend a bit of time back there. [Shinnecock Hills] was not too dissimilar to an Open championship in terms of how the golf course started to play over the weekend, but a bit of links golf over the next couple of weeks will be nice,\u201d admitted McIlroy.<\/p>\n

Shane Lowry<\/a>, who had a disappointing missed cut at the US Open<\/a>, has slipped to 54th in the updated FedEx Cup rankings and will look to rebound at the Travelers at TPC River Highlands in Connecticut, where Keegan Bradley is the defending champion.<\/p>\n

Lowry\u2019s schedule will see him compete in the Travelers before travelling home. Lowry won\u2019t play in the Scottish Open and instead will focus his preparations ahead of Birkdale by playing links courses in Ireland.<\/p>\n

Scottie Scheffler\u2019s Grand Slam ambitions on hold for now <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was good to be back in the arena,\u201d remarked Scottie Scheffler<\/a>, the world number one, of getting to contend again in a Major, even if his quest to complete the career Grand Slam at the US Open has come and gone for now.<\/p>\n

Scheffler, of course, will get another chance to join that elite club when the US Open rolls around to Pebble Beach next year. And if not there, then Winged Foot in 2028. And Pinehurst in 2029 … and wherever that quest takes him going forward.<\/p>\n

So far this year, Scheffler has found himself playing catch-up in the Majors even if his finishes \u2013 runner-up at the Masters, tied-14th at the PGA and tied-4th at the US Open \u2013 have left him within touching distance.<\/p>\n

\"\"Why is Leo Cullen leaving Leinster?<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know exactly what it is. I\u2019ve been pretty good in first rounds over the last few years, and for some reason, the sharpness just hasn\u2019t been there early in tournaments. I haven\u2019t had those leads that I\u2019ve needed in order to win tournaments. I\u2019ve been playing catch-up all year. It\u2019s just a matter of just getting a little bit closer, being a little bit sharper to start tournaments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Word of Mouth<\/p>\n

\u201cMan, they definitely didn\u2019t want me to win. It\u2019s pretty rare in an Open Championship or a Major to have fans kind of boo against your shots or cheer for bad shots … sometimes being the underdog is nice. I was in \u201923 [at Los Angeles], and I kind of did the same thing. Anytime someone said something negative to me, I replaced it with something positive. Yeah, it was tough, but I\u2019m proud of myself that I battled through. I mean, things really could have gotten away from me. I stood tough.\u201d \u2013 Wyndham Clark on ignoring the brickbats from the crowd en route to winning the 126th US Open at Shinnecock Hills.<\/p>\n

\"LaurenLauren Walsh is one of three Irish golfers in action at the US Women\u2019s PGA Championship at Hazeltine this week. Photograph: Emilee Chinn\/Getty Images By the Numbers: 3<\/p>\n

This week\u2019s KPMG US Women\u2019s PGA Championship at Hazeltine is the third Major of the year and features three Irish players: Lauren Walsh, who finished tied-56th in the Meijer Classic at the weekend, along with Leona Maguire, who missed the cut at the LPGA Tour event. Stephanie Meadow has managed to get in as the 156th of 156 players in the field which offers a $12 million purse. Australia\u2019s Minjee Lee is the defending champion. The first two Majors of the season have been won by Nelly Korda (The Chevron and the US Women\u2019s Open).<\/p>\n

On this day: June 23 1985<\/p>\n

Seve Ballesteros was both a legendary player and a showman who loved to play to his adoring galleries. And so it was that his reaction to defeating Bernhard Langer at the second hole of sudden death to win the Carrolls Irish Open at Royal Dublin was to engage in some enthusiastic shadow boxing with the crowds to mark the victory.<\/p>\n

The charismatic Ballesteros \u2013 a five-times Major champion \u2013 won 90 titles worldwide as a professional, 50 of them on the European Tour, and his playoff victory over Langer marked his second of three Irish Open career wins.<\/p>\n

Ballesteros shot rounds of 70-69-73-66 on the north Bull Island links for a total of 10-under-par 278 to claim victory, but only after he was put to the pin of his collar by the German.<\/p>\n

Langer \u2013 who\u2019d won his first green jacket at Augusta in April, when Ballesteros was a runner-up \u2013 set a course record 63 in the final round to set a mark which was threw down the gauntlet to the Spaniard, who responded by birdieing three of the last four holes to force a playoff.<\/p>\n

The two men returned to the links for a sudden-death playoff, both parring the 17th before moving on to the 18th, the famous Garden Hole, where Ballesteros sank a 35-footer for birdie to win the title, the 24th victory of his career on the European Tour.<\/p>\n

Social Swing<\/p>\n

This was such a gutsy performance by Wyndham. The entire crowd was against him and he pulled it off. What a win \u2013 fellow tour player Michael Kim tips the cap to Wyndham Clark on overcoming the field and the crowd to capture the US Open at Shinnecock Hills.<\/p>\n

Just a place shy of 3rd straight top 10 in majors this year. These events are amazing. They test every part of your game. and you have to confront every emotion that you feel. But, that\u2019s why we do it! Winning is always the aim. Majors are the goal. I\u2019m there close enough to still believe it can happen again soon. Thx for the unbelievable support from fans in what is their national open. Very grateful. @usopen \u2013 Justin Rose with a great insight, after a tied-11th place finish in the US Open. <\/p>\n

Best team win \u2013 Dubs dominate kick outs and possession. Watching GAA always a great start to any Sunday no matter where you may be in the world \u2013 Paul McGinley who managed to catch the Dublin-Donegal All-Ireland quarter-final ahead of his punditry with Sky and the Golf Channel at the US Open.<\/p>\n

\"WyndhamWyndham Clark celebrates with the US Open trophy after his victory at Shinnecock Hills. Photograph: Andrew Redington\/Getty Images In the Bag: Wyndham Clark (US Open) <\/p>\n

Driver: TaylorMade Qi10 (9 degrees)<\/p>\n

3-wood: TaylorMade Qi10 (15 degrees)<\/p>\n

5-wood: Ping G440 Max (19 degrees)<\/p>\n

Irons: Titleist T200 (4, 5), Titleist T100 (6-9)<\/p>\n

Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM11 (44, 50, 54 and 60 degrees)<\/p>\n

Putter: Ping Scottsdale TEC Ally Blue Onset<\/p>\n

Ball: Titleist ProV1x<\/p>\n

Know the Rules<\/p>\n

Q: In foursomes match play, a player whose turn it is plays first from the tee. Their partner then plays from the tee as though it is a four-ball competition. What is the ruling?<\/p>\n

A: The side have effectively proceeded under stroke and distance. The ball played by the partner from the teeing area is in play and the side\u2019s next stroke will be its fourth. Such a situation is covered under the Rules of Golf Clarification 22.3\/1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What\u2019s next for Rory McIlroy? In skipping this week\u2019s Travelers Championship \u2013 the last of the $20 million…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":653949,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,2623,3026,3027,101,56,54,55,6545],"class_list":["post-653948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-rory-mcilroy","tag-scottie-scheffler","tag-shane-lowry","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-us-open"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}