Favourite McIlroy’s ready to face Open challenge

The best Woods could do in the other three majors of 1997 was 19th and he did not win any of the next seven either.

Even at a time when England’s Luke Donald and Lee Westwood are ranked one and two in the world, McIlroy is the new golden boy of golf after winning his first major by eight shots and with a record score at the US Open last month.

Yet as the 22-year-old stated himself yesterday after completing an early final practice round in strong winds at Sandwich: “I’ve always said I’m more comfortable playing on a course like Congressional. This is a challenge, but I like a challenge. We will see how it goes.”

The excitement surrounding the Northern Irishman is reminiscent of the Tiger-mania witnessed at Royal Troon 14 years ago.

It did not last long there. On the 10th hole of his first round, Woods had a quadruple-bogey eight and lost too much ground to make up.

McIlroy, meanwhile, will be doing better than Woods did at Royal St George’s in 2003 if he simply finds his opening drive and takes fewer than seven shots on the 444-yard hole.

But winning in Washington on his last competitive appearance has catapulted the 22-year-old into a league where so much is going to be expected of him.

It took Woods nine years to get his 14 majors and if McIlroy, the youngest US Open champion since 1923, does not on Sunday become the youngest Open champion since 1893 nobody should think his bubble has burst.

It would just mean that he will move on to the US PGA Championship in Atlanta next month to try again.

All the players at this week’s Open have signed a book of remembrance for the late Seve Ballesteros.

Three-time winner Ballesteros died in May at the age of just 54 after a two-and-a-half-year battle with a brain tumour.

A number of other tributes will be made during the week, with an article in the official programme and numerous photos of the Spaniard around the site, while his image will appear on the drawsheets each day, with the proceeds from those being donated to his charitable foundation.