Rory McIlroy was on holiday with his parents in Spain having just competed in a youth tournament in Sotogrande the last time the Open swung this way, and he was watching on TV as Tiger Woods picked his way around the scorched Hoylake links using a two-iron off most of the tees and held off the game Chris DiMarco by two shots.
McIlroy, who was to make his Open debut the following year at Carnoustie, aged 18, was as aware as anyone of the strategy that was being employed in highly unusual conditions, but even though things have normalised on the Wirral links this week, he feels a bit of what Tiger had in 2006 may help see him first in the queue when the baubles are handed out on Sunday evening.
“The par-fives are a big key this week,” the Northern Irishman said. “If you look back at ’06, I think Tiger played the par-fives in 14 under par. So the majority of his scoring was done on the par-fives. There are four really good opportunities to make birdies out there. And there’s a couple of tough holes on the back nine, if you can just sort of make par there you’re going to do well.”
Woods won with an 18-under aggregate and the maturing McIlroy, who played a couple of practice rounds at Hoylake before heading up to Royal Aberdeen last week for a first appearance in the Scottish Open in five years, is now of the view that a week’s competition in links conditions is the ideal preparation for a week’s contest in links conditions.
After he finished seven-over, 12 behind the winner Darren Clarke, at a difficult Royal St George’s at the 2011 Open, McIlroy said his game suited “basically every course” and “most conditions” and he would not be changing his game for “one week a year”, albeit a major week, which was a puzzling remark as he obviously had the tools to succeed when conditions take a turn for the worse.
“I played so much links golf in my amateur days, I was used to playing the shots that you need on links courses a little more,” the world No8 admitted on Tuesday. “I guess when you go on tour and you play, especially play the majority of your golf in the US, you start to neglect some of the shots that you need in conditions like this.
“If anything, I don’t think I’ve evolved that much as a links player, but I’ve been trying, especially the last few weeks, to play some shots, really practise hard on some of the shots that I might need this week. The Open is a tournament that is very important to me and my record hasn’t been as good as I’d like.”
Part of the preparation saw McIlroy set a course record of 64 at Royal Aberdeen in the first round – seven under – but not for the first time he gave his advantage and the lead back the next day, a situation with which he is also becoming familiar and which he is intent on rectifying.
“There should be no reason why I have a problem shooting a low one on Friday,” said McIlroy, who has had to deal with the news that his acquaintance and rumoured new girlfriend Nadia Forde had a thankfully less-than-serious car crash on Sunday. “It’s something that I need to go out and pretend like it’s a Thursday again … play a few solid holes and get your round under way that way. Hopefully this week I can start to turn that second-round thing around and start shooting some better scores.”
Just as Woods did in 2006, McIlroy has also ditched his five-wood in favour of a two-iron as it gets the ball through the air at a lower trajectory and with a better flight in what are breezy but not overly difficult conditions. “I’ll use it on the first two holes definitely,” he said. “It will be an important club, I might use it four or five times in the round. I’ll probably use it just as much as I use the driver.”
Spoken like a man who is thinking on his feet and who is focused on completing what would be the third leg of a career grand slam at the tender age of 25. And with that he was off to relearn more old tricks in his practice round with Thongchai Jaidee and Brooks Koepka.
