{"id":9928,"date":"2025-07-14T20:32:02","date_gmt":"2025-07-14T20:32:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/9928\/"},"modified":"2025-07-14T20:32:02","modified_gmt":"2025-07-14T20:32:02","slug":"mcilroy-vows-the-story-isnt-over-as-he-revels-in-royal-portrush-support-at-the-open-the-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/9928\/","title":{"rendered":"McIlroy vows \u2018the story isn\u2019t over\u2019 as he revels in Royal Portrush support at the Open | The Open"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rory McIlroy has promised to revel in the Northern Irish love during the Open Championship this week, with the 36-year-old also warning fellow competitors that he has regained focus after claiming the Masters<\/a> in April. \u201cThe story certainly isn\u2019t over,\u201d he insisted.<\/p>\n

McIlroy has returned to Royal Portrush for the first time since 2019, when he admitted the scale of ovation on the Open\u2019s first tee contributed to him whacking his ball out of bounds. He later missed the cut<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Attention in the coming days promises to be even more intense, given his Masters win meant he became only the sixth golfer in history to complete a career grand slam.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think in \u201919 I probably tried to isolate,\u201d McIlroy said on Monday. \u201cI think it\u2019s better for everyone if I embrace it. I think it\u2019s better for me.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nice to be able to accept adulation, even though I struggle with it at times. But it\u2019s also nice for the person that is seeing you for the first time in a few years. It just makes for a better interaction and not trying to hide away from it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s more of, embrace everything that\u2019s going to come my way this week and not try to shy away from it or hide away from it. I think that\u2019ll make for a better experience for everyone involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

McIlroy was asked unsurprisingly to reflect on the first hole, six years ago, where he slumped to a quadruple\u2011bogey eight. He said: \u201cThe walk to the first tee and then that ovation, I was a little surprised and a little taken aback, like: \u2018Geez, these people really want me to win.\u2019 I think that brought its own sort of pressure and more internally from myself, not really wanting to let people down. It\u2019s just something I didn\u2019t mentally prepare for that day or that week.<\/p>\n

Rory McIlroy missed the cut at Royal Portrush in the 2019 Open. Photograph: Bruce White\/Colorsport\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

\u201cI learned pretty quickly that one of my challenges, especially in a week like this, is controlling myself and controlling that battle. I talked about it at the Masters on that last day. The battle on that last day wasn\u2019t with Augusta National. It wasn\u2019t with Bryson DeChambeau. It wasn\u2019t with Justin Rose. The battle that day was with myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

It certainly appears as if McIlroy has found an appropriate level of motivation. After only four hours of sleep, he played 18 Portrush holes first thing on Monday morning. McIlroy openly challenged the sense he will compete in the 153rd Open without any pressure, an event he had circled on the calendar at the start of 2025.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019ve done something that I\u2019ve told everyone that I wanted to do,\u201d McIlroy said. \u201cBut I still feels like I have a lot more to give. Anyone that sits up here at this table, we\u2019re all competitors. We all want to do better. We all think we can just get a little bit extra out of what we have.<\/p>\n

Quick GuideBBC to show Open highlightsShow<\/p>\n

The BBC has secured a last-minute deal to show an early evening highlights programme from The Open Championship in Portrush this week.<\/p>\n

The Guardian has learned that the R&A has agreed a new three-year deal with the BBC for highlights for the Open, which also covers the women\u2019s Championship, starting with the 2025 edition at Royal Porthcawl at the end of the month.<\/p>\n

The BBC\u2019s late move comes as a surprise and is a boost for the R&A and golf fans, as the corporation has shown little interest in the sport in recent years. A long-term contract for live rights to the Open was terminated a year early by the BBC in 2016, with Sky Sports taking over live coverage, and while they have shown highlights since then they had opted not to renew a contract that expired last year.<\/p>\n

The Rory McIlroy factor may have played a role in the BBC\u2019s decision to make a late bid, with the reigning Masters champion playing on his home course in Northern Ireland likely to boost interest amongst casual fans. BBC Sport sources have expressed the belief that they made an error of judgment in not attempting to show highlights of the Masters this year, with coverage of McIlroy\u2019s triumph at Augusta only available to viewers with Sky Sports.<\/p>\n

The Open is a more attractive property for the BBC however, due to the Championship\u2019s earlier finishing times in this country, which should deliver a bigger audience. As a result this week\u2019s highlights programmes are due to be shown at 9pm on Thursday and Friday before starting at 10pm on Saturday and Sunday.<\/p>\n

The R&A and BBC did not comment, but an announcement is expected in the next few days. Matt Hughes<\/p>\n

Thank you for your feedback.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been an amazing year. The fact that I\u2019m here at Portrush with the Green Jacket, having completed that lifelong dream, I want to do my best this week to enjoy everything that comes my way and enjoy the reaction of the fans and enjoy being in front of them and playing in front of them. But at the same time, I want to win this golf tournament and I feel like I\u2019m very capable of doing that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI try to go about my business. I try to give the best of myself every time I\u2019m out there. It\u2019s amounted to some pretty nice things so far. I still feel like there\u2019s a lot left in there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy has promised to revel in the Northern Irish love during the Open Championship this week, with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9929,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":["post-9928","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\/9928","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=9928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}