The Open Championship returns to Northern Ireland this week with the 153rd edition being hosted at Royal Portrush.
It is just six years since the County Antrim course hosted the Open, where Shane Lowry was victorious in front of family and friends.
While he will be hoping for a repeat of the 2019 Open Championship, the same can’t be said of Rory McIlroy.
Those struggles appear to be haunting him still, as the 36-year-old got off to a difficult start to the 2025 Open Championship.
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Rory McIlroy’s struggles in round one of the 2025 Open Championship
On a rainy afternoon on the Northern Irish coast on Thursday, the anticipation built for Rory to step onto that first tee.
Thankfully, the 36-year-old was able to avoid the horror opening tee shot and kept it in bounds, but he did still find the left rough, before three-putting from the front of the green.
Oliver Wilson, a former Ryder Cup star and professional golfer, believed that his initial difficulties were down to nerves.
He said on BBC 5 Live: “He’ll [McIlroy] be pretty gutted with that, but it can only be down to nerves.
“It was pretty straightforward, so that’s got to be nerves,”
He will be hoping to avoid the same fate as 2019, where it was something of a nightmare for him instead, shaking off those nerves and kicking on in the contest.
Rory McIlroy’s nightmarish start in the 2019 Open Championship
Rory McIlroy hit his opening tee shot out of bounds to the left off the first hole back in 2019.
He would go on to card a quadruple bogey eight on the daunting par-four opener.
This resulted in an opening 79 (eight over par), which also included a double at the 16th and a triple on the last.
Despite a heroic second-round 65 on Friday, McIlroy missed the cut by one in heartbreaking fashion.
It was not what the home fans wanted to see from their homegrown talent, something they won’t want a repeat of.
But, thankfully, McIlroy had a chance at redemption in 2025.