'I'm so bad at golf' - Rory McIlroy says he has 'work to do' for The 154th Open

His bad, of course, is on a different level to most golfers, but it was a shot that confirmed to the world No 2 that he has “work to do” over the next couple of days before teeing up in The 154th Open at Royal Birkdale.

After opening with rounds of 65-66 on the East Lothian coast, McIlroy shared the lead at the halfway stage in the $9 million Rolex Series event and looked as though he could go on and repeat his 2023 triumph.

It was a real shock to everyone, therefore, when he slipped backwards after a dismal start to what was a delayed third round on Saturday due weather issues and the spark was still missing when he returned early on Sunday morning to play ten holes.

Six behind the leaders heading out in the closing circuit, it always looked as though the back-to-back Masters champion had left himself with too big a mountain to climb and so proved. He gave it a good, though, by signing off with a 64 for a 12-under-par total.

“Yeah, I felt like I was pretty much in control of everything after the first two days,” said McIlroy, assessing his week’s work, at the Dirleton venue, where is now a combined 54 under for his last 16 rounds. “Then had a long day yesterday waiting around. Didn’t get off to the best of starts then didn’t finish the third round off today particularly well.

“I sort of pieced to together. realised what I was doing, tried to figure it out on the range before I went out for my final round. At least I know what I am doing. It’s a matter of sort of rectifying it.

“Obviously there was some good in there today, but there was some bad as well. So I am going to need to work a little bit over the next couple of days to be ready for Thursday.”

McIlroy finished joint-fourth behind Jordan Spieth at Royal Birkdale in 2017 and paid a visit to the Southport venue almost a fortnight ago to get himself reacquainted with it.

“Yeah, I think so,” he replied to being asked if he feels can get himself in a position where he can fancy his chances of claiming a second Claret Jug and take his major title haul to seventh next weekend.

“I think I just need to hit some balls in a right-to-left wind. That usually helps me. It;s the same thing I get when I start hitting balls in a left-to-rioght win, like it has been on the range over the weekend.

“My path and my face just get too far apart. Like my face is just aiming a lot further left than my path is and I start hitting these left shots, especially with the irons.

“So it was feeling good coming in here and it was good. I hit some really good iron shots over the first couple of days. But, the more I hit balls in a left-to-right wind, the more that starts to show itself and then it’s a bit of a struggle.”

McIlroy laughed when he was asked in a separate interview about his exasperated shout at the 16th. “The shot I hit with that 6-iron was a very, very poor golf shot,” he said. “So, in that moment, I was so bad at golf!”