Rory McIlroy's Open hopes at Hoylake pits history against symmetry

Of whether the game’s standard bearer, a man who shoulders not only his own burden of pressure but the weight of the toxic conversation about golf’s civil war, can finally re-enter the major championship winner’s circle he so desperately craves readmission to.

Eight years and 11 months have passed since he won his last one at Valhalla in 2014, his second PGA Championship and fourth major overall.

It came just a few weeks after he won the Open Championship for the first time at Royal Liverpool, which again this week welcomes the world’s finest male golfers for the oldest tournament in the game.

For the start of each major there is a McIlroy narrative, and sadly what has become custom is for there to be a McIlroy disappointment come the end of it.

Each year he turns up to Augusta looking for the one major that will grant him access into that exclusive club of players to have completed the grand slam.

Last year he had the Open at St Andrews in the palm of his hand but average putting on the Sunday saw him blown away by Cameron Smith’s final-round 64.

That was crushing for McIlroy and his supporters, but worse was to follow and arguably a greater golfing sin in not winning the US Open at Los Angeles Country Club last month.

Once more he was in position to triumph and end the losing streak when his putter went cold again and by posting a closing 70 failed to exert enough pressure on Wyndham Clark, a promising, in-form American but by no means an intimidating figure, who was playing in the final group of a major for the first time and only required a 70 to match McIlroy and edge him out. It was no surprise the Northern Irishman was overheard muttering “St Andrews all over again” to his manager after finishing one shot behind.

McIlroy is a great golfer, but until he ends this major drought he can not be considered a great.

All the best players have runner-up finishes on their CV but can you imagine Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Seve Ballesteros or Nick Faldo letting a chance like the one he had created for himself slip through their fingers as McIlroy did at LACC?

Or an insatiable major competitor like Brooks Koepka?

The numbers make for startling reading.

Thursday’s opening round at Hoylake will mark 3,266 days, or 78,384 hours for those with a degree in advance mathematics, since McIlroy’s last major.

The 34-year-old has won none of the 34 majors since.

Koepka has racked up all five of his victories in that spell, Jordan Spieth three, Justin Thomas, Jon Rahm, Collin Morikawa and Dustin Johnson two each, while 18 different players have tasted victory once, including a 50-year-old Phil Mickelson and an injury-ravaged Tiger Woods.

McIlroy can point to commendable consistency, recording 19 top-10s and finishing no worse than eighth in all four majors in 2022, yet genuine chances to win on the back nine on Sunday have been relatively scarce.

In the 2018 Masters – the only major he has not won – McIlroy began the day three behind leader Patrick Reed but had a short eagle putt on the par-five second to draw level with the American. He missed, bogeyed the third to Reed’s birdie and that was effectively that.

At the 2022 US PGA, McIlroy roared into contention with four straight birdies early in the final round and was one shot off the eventual score required for a play-off, only to fade to eighth. It was a different story two months later as McIlroy shared the lead with Viktor Hovland heading into the final round of the Open at St Andrews, four shots clear of Smith and Cameron Young.

Two ahead at the turn, McIlroy made his second birdie of the day on the 10th but was overhauled by a surging Smith, the Australian making five birdies in a row to start the back nine and another on the last to complete a stunning 64.

Last month’s US Open...well.

At least he has happy memories of Royal Liverpool and “Hoylake all over again” would be a very welcome sense of deja vu for McIlroy following his 2014 triumph, when he led from start to finish and held off a charging Sergio Garcia on the final day to lift the Claret Jug.

When another major title followed a month later it was almost inconceivable that McIlroy would be stuck on the same tally nine years later, but there are precedents for ending even lengthier droughts.

Julius Boros and Hale Irwin both won the US Open 11 years apart, while Ben Crenshaw’s Masters victories in 1984 and 1995 came in just six days shy of that mark.

Tiger Woods memorably won the 2019 Masters almost 11 years on from his 2008 US Open win, with Lee Trevino and Ernie Els also cracking the 10-year barrier.

A keen student of the game, chances are McIlroy will be well aware of such facts. Another major week dawns with many of us hoping this great ambassador for the game gets his just rewards.