{"id":11194,"date":"2025-07-15T08:31:04","date_gmt":"2025-07-15T08:31:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/11194\/"},"modified":"2025-07-15T08:31:04","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T08:31:04","slug":"british-open-2025-after-plane-delays-and-four-hours-sleep-rory-mcilroy-first-out-monday-at-royal-portrush","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/11194\/","title":{"rendered":"British Open 2025: After plane delays and four hours sleep, Rory McIlroy first out Monday at Royal Portrush"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Despite being last off Sunday at the Genesis Scottish Open, Rory McIlroy made sure he was first off Monday at Royal Portrush.<\/p>\n<p>It proved a wise decision.<\/p>\n<p>These major practice rounds can be a slog, so McIlroy traded the extra sleep for a 6:40 a.m. local starting time to begin his Open Championship prep. Playing as a solo, McIlroy was alone on the Harry Colt layout for nearly two hours before other players teed off, and shortly before noon, McIlroy was signing autographs for the fans behind the 18th green. Then the horn sounded, and while others had their practice rounds suspended because of inclement weather, McIlroy had plenty of time to eat and relax before his 2 p.m. presser.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe last couple of majors, at the PGA and the U.S. Open, the practice rounds take so long,\u201d McIlroy said. \u201cI feel like there\u2019s 50 people inside the ropes all the time. I feel like I just can\u2019t get good work done, good preparation. I didn\u2019t come up here ahead of time to try and get a couple of practice rounds in, so I just wanted to get out early, sort of beat the rush, beat the crowd, and do my work with not a lot of people around. So that was the reason that I did that today.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt worked out well. Obviously, we had that weather delay there, and it was nice to get 18 holes in early and feel like I got a productive day of work in.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>McIlroy\u2019s rush to Northern Ireland after his T-2 in Scotland on Sunday evening wasn\u2019t without challenge either. McIlroy\u2019s private jet was delayed on tarmacs leaving Scotland and upon landing in Belfast. As a result, McIlroy didn\u2019t arrive at his accommodations until 1 a.m. and got just four hours of sleep.<\/p>\n<p>Luckily, he was energized a bit halfway through his practice round.<\/p>\n<p>    <a class=\"Link\" aria-label=\"The Open power rankings: All 156 players ranked for Royal Portrush\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcsports.com\/golf\/news\/the-open-power-rankings-all-156-players-ranked-for-royal-portrush\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"Image\" alt=\"The 153rd Open - Previews_LargeImage_m362893.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/1752568264_263_\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ve reached the final men\u2019s major championship of the year \u2013 and our final full-field ranking, as Scottie Scheffler leads the list of 156 players for The Open at Royal Portrush.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy the time I got to the back nine today, there was a nice crowd out there,\u201d McIlroy said. \u201cAfter the 18th and seeing all the kids and signing autographs, it\u2019s really, really nice, and I\u2019m sure that\u2019ll just build as the week goes on.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Still, McIlroy had one thing on his mind once his media obligations were over:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to taking a nap after this.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite being last off Sunday at the Genesis Scottish Open, Rory McIlroy made sure he was first off&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11195,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":["post-11194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}