{"id":752674,"date":"2026-07-09T14:07:24","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T14:07:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/752674\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T14:07:24","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T14:07:24","slug":"rory-mcilroy-did-not-want-this-news-to-go-public-before-the-open-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/752674\/","title":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy Did Not Want This News To Go Public Before the Open Championship"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"Rory\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Rory McIlroy looks on during the the Genesis Scottish Open 2026.<\/p>\n

Rory McIlroy will finally be in action this week at the Genesis Scottish Open<\/a> after two weeks of break.<\/p>\n

He skipped the last signature event of the season, the Travelers Championship, risking his 2027 PGA Tour membership and exemptions. He might be failing to meet the 15-event minimum requirement.<\/p>\n

But McIlroy used that break well. He went up to Royal Birkdale<\/a> and got some early practice before the Open Championship. The news went public after Sir Nick Faldo, who suddenly came across him on the course, uploaded a video of them together.<\/p>\n

However, McIlroy did not want that to happen. He wanted to keep his early preparations a secret.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would have liked not to have known that I was there, but\u00a0Faldo couldn\u2019t put his phone away,\u201d he said<\/a>. \u201cBut I love Nick. In fairness, he\u2019s great and I had a good time with him.\u00a0He walked a few holes with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Rory<\/p>\n

GettyRory McIlroy speaks to the media during a press conference before the Genesis Scottish Open 2026.<\/p>\n

After getting settled in Wentworth for the summer, McIlroy has been frequenting Links golf courses. Just this past week, he was up at St. Enodoc. He was playing just for fun, but that too helped his preparations for the fourth major of the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe spent four days down in Cornwall with the Donalds and the Lowrys,\u201d he said. \u201cYou start hitting the ball off Links turf again and start to play in a little bit more wind. And, your Links instincts come back, even if it is for fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sir Nick Faldo & Rory McIlroy Share a Special Relationship<\/p>\n

When Faldo and McIlroy met at Royal Birkdale, he offered the Masters winner some advice on how to navigate the course. His first Open appearance came at that very place.<\/p>\n

McIlroy owes a lot to Faldo for being where he is today.<\/p>\n

\"Rory<\/p>\n

GettyRory McIlroy poses with Nick Faldo after winning the Under 17 Division of the 2006 Faldo Junior Series.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was part of the Faldo series\u00a0that put on junior golf tournaments around the UK,\u201d he revealed. \u201cI was part of a thing called Team Faldo,\u00a0which was like an elite team of the best juniors in the UK.<\/p>\n

We got to travel a couple of times a year to California, to Hong Kong once as well.\u00a0There were things that\u00a0I was exposed to that definitely helped my progression as a golfer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rory McIlroy Appreciates Jon Rahm and Other LIV Guys Playing in the Scottish Open\"Jon<\/p>\n

GettyJon Rahm will tee off at the Scottish Open.<\/p>\n

This week, some of the LIV golfers will also be teeing off at the Genesis Scottish Open. Since this event is co-sanctioned by both the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour, they get a chance to tee off through the European circuit.<\/p>\n

Rory McIlroy believes that it is better for the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve talked about\u00a0wanting to just have all of the best players\u00a0in the world play together,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u201cI guess this is good\u00a0and it\u2019s not as if this hasn\u2019t been open to them before.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s just because LIV Valderrama was always this week.\u00a0So, having Jon in this event is better for the event\u00a0than him not being here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDibyendu Mondal<\/a> Dibyendu Mondal is a contributor for Heavy Sports with special focus on golf, football, basketball and soccer. With more than two years of experience, he has managed to reach close to 7 million people through his writing. He previously worked as a contributor for Athlon Sports and Sportskeeda. More about Dibyendu Mondal<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Rory McIlroy looks on during the the Genesis Scottish Open 2026. Rory McIlroy will finally be in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":752675,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":["post-752674","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\/752674","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=752674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752674\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/752675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=752674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=752674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=752674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}