2025 Open storylines: Rory McIlroy returns to Royal Portrush, Scottie Scheffler seeks to enter next echelon

Only four rounds of major championship golf remain in 2025. Before you know it, once the Ryder Cup passes in September, the countdown to April and the 2026 Masters will commence and a dark seventh-month period will engulf golf fans seeking a sense of direction and a sense of purpose. 

So, cherish the 2025 Open Championship. Cherish the carnage which Royal Portrush may unleash on the world’s best golfer. Cherish the weather, which may wreak havoc, and the smell of fresh coffee in the pot as those of you in North America wake up to a random name atop the leaderboard Thursday morning. 

There is nothing quite like The Open, especially one set in Northern Ireland — a true rarity in the history of this championship. There is nothing like watching players battle internal and external elements with those inside often presenting more danger than the wind and rain they trudge through. There is nothing like this championship in this setting in this field at this time. And there will never be another like it.

There may never be another Northern Irishman to play the game of golf quite like Rory McIlroy, and who knows when there will be another European returning to his home country with the career grand slam in tow. The green jacket in his closet and aspirations of adding another Claret Jug to his collection — tying for the all-time major lead among Europeans — McIlroy makes his return to the place where he infamously blew up in 2019.

Expectations were high then, and they may be even higher now, but the 36-year-old is much better equipped, too. He’s battered down the demons of the past already this season, so who says he can’t do it again? Rejuvenated and refreshed, Rory rolls into Royal Portrush with the wind of his home nation in his sails.

There are others, of course, as a major championship can not be discussed without mentioning of the top player in the sport. That is still Scottie Scheffler for those you wondering at home. The world No. 1 has not finished outside the top 10 in a golf tournament since early March, and he is not far off from figuring out the nuances of links golf.

With seven top 25s in eight starts between the Scottish Open and The Open, Scheffler seeks his second major this season. That would move him from being a man who only possessed a green jacket at the onset of the year to one just a U.S. Open trophy away from his own career grand slam.

Bryson DeChambeau has his fair share U.S. Opens on his resume, but his foray into golf in this part of the world has certainly been a welcoming one. Will the big hitter slam his way into contention for the first time in his Open career? His LIV Golf mate, Jon Rahm, seems intent on doing just that. Now with four straight top-15 finishes in major championships, the two-time major champion looks to add a third different trophy to his mantle amid of run in this championship that includes two podium finishes in his last four tries and a T11 at this venue before that.

This much and more we’ll cover in ahead of the 2025 Open — a championship that is to be cherished and a championship that will never be replicated.

Rory’s return home

It came crashing down as fast and hard as it was built up six seasons ago. McIlroy’s return to Northern Ireland was billed as appointment viewing with eyes were glued to televisions across the world when the Ulsterman struck his first shot from the first tee box … and then his second … and then penciled an opening quadruple bogey onto his scorecard for what became a first-round 79.

McIlroy battled back in a fury the next day with a 65 that proved to not be enough to sneak inside the cutline, sending the native lad packing early. His history around these parts is well known — a course record setter at just 16 years of age with a sensational 61 comes to mind — and his first tee shot will be the most anticipated of any Thursday.

“I’m really happy with where everything is,” McIlroy said at the Scottish Open. “Looking forward to getting to Portrush tonight and getting out on to the golf course early tomorrow and just turning my attention to that. But I feel like I’ve gotten out of this week everything, really, that I wanted.”

After experiencing a post-Masters lull, the grand slam winner seems much more at peace with his game. Taking jabs and tossing jokes during press conferences and media scrums, he appears to be in a headspace similar to that he experienced before the Masters. His game was good enough to win at the Scottish Open — an average driving performance would have done the trick with how well he performed on the greens — but with McIlroy, it is hardly ever the physical game to monitor but rather those six inches between the ears.

McIlroy enters as the second-leading a favorite at 7-1, per FanDuel Sportsbook. The only man in front of him has a stranglehold on the No. 1 player in the world moniker.

Scheffler searches for another first

The last few seasons have been filled with firsts for the world No. 1 (including this one). In 2022, Scheffler claimed his first PGA Tour win and his first major championship. In 2023, he won his first Players Championship. In 2024, he was able to win his second major championship, a gold medal and a FedEx Cup crown.

Even this season, he has already accomplished the first of winning the PGA Championship — his first major away from Augusta National. Yet in order to continue down this path towards all-time great, more firsts need to be ticked off this list as greatness rarely looks like what has been seen before.

Winning two majors in the same season would certainly suffice, and The Open — despite the perception — may well be a great chance for him to do just that. It would elevate his count to four and push his name past players like Jordan Spieth and Vijay Singh.

Scheffler, who enters as a 9/2 favorite, has never finished outside the top 25 in his four Open starts. He possesses the lowest cumulative score to par (84 under) in major championship history and is one of three players since World War II to finish inside the top 10 in at least 15 of his first 24 major starts (Gary Player, Arnold Palmer). 

His name continues to get mentioned with the greats, and he if those talks are going to continue, wins on this stage will have to as well.

“I feel like I’m really close,” Scheffler said at the Scottish Open. “I feel like I was close to playing some really good golf. Just got to get some momentum.”

Multiple major winners in same season (since 1975)

Schauffele’s lost season?

What has been the most memorable shot that Schauffele has taken in 2025? The quick hook into the water on the par-4 16th in the first round of the PGA Championship comes to mind, but outside that — and even that is a stretch — there is none that fits thebill. That’s what could be at stake for the reigning Champion Golfer of the Year this week — a season that remains largely forgotten about or a season that is transformed into a memorable with just four rounds.

A win would turn his campaign from a relative failure (just two top-10 finishes) into a great success — a major championship, making it three in his career! The turnaround would come at the site of Schauffele’s first foray into the Open when he finished T20 in his debut. 

Since then, he has turned into a major championship savant with the second-lowest score to par in Open history thanks to seven straight made cuts, a runner-up finish at Carnoustie, a couple other top-20 finishes and his win last season. Padraig Harrington represents the last man to go back-to-back at The Open with others like Henrik Stenson (T11 in 2017), Jordan Spieth (T9 in 2018) and Francesco Molinari (T11 in 2019) putting up admirable defenses.

Bryson tries to figure it out

The bomb-and-gouge methodology may be effective on 90% of the golf courses DeChambeau plays, but the other 10% (largely Open venues) have befuddled the artist formerly known as The Mad Scientist. In seven attempts, the two-time U.S. Open winner has just one top-10 finish — at a benign St. Andrews a few years ago — and three missed cuts.

“It’s a completely different test,” DeChambeau said after beginning last year’s Open with a 76. “I didn’t get any practice in it, and I didn’t really play much in the rain. Yeah, it’s a difficult test out here. Something I’m not familiar with. I never grew up playing it, and not to say that that’s the reason; I finished eighth at St Andrews. I can do it when it’s warm and not windy.”

Saying the quiet part out loud, DeChambeau’s game can translate when the conditions allow it, but so rarely does that occur in this championship. The artistic side of the game eluded him at Oakmont and led to a surprising missed cut. That’s a big reason why — playing golf swing, not golf — he has been met with so little success across the pond.

DeChambeau at The Open

An Open third

One venue outside Scotland and England can say it has hosted The Open, and that venue is Royal Portrush. The grounds on which this year’s Champion Golfer of the Year will be crowned, Royal Portrush welcomes the Claret Jug for the third time, the first since Irishman Shane Lowry leapt into immortality with his win in 2019.

While many links golf courses feature flat land and large, inviting green complexes, Royal Portrush takes on a different shape with thought-provoking putting surfaces and eye-catching topography. The uniqueness is why some players chose to forgo the Scottish Open last week in lieu of on-site preparation and is why this Open so exciting — combined with the rabid Northern Ireland fans, of course.

The season of Spieth

No matter his form and no matter the state of the runway, Jordan Spieth has found a way to take flight by the time The Open rolls around. Playing in his 12th Open this week, the three-time major champion has made the weekend in all 11 of his appearances, and he comes into Royal Portrush riding a top 25 streak in this championship dating back to his win at Royal Birkdale in 2017.

Spieth also possesses the lowest cumulative score to par (-41) in Open history ahead of Schauffele (-29), Cameron Young (-18) and Scheffler (-17). He has averaged +2.32 strokes gained per round across his 44 championship rounds. Spieth has confirmed that he is healthy following the first withdrawal of his PGA Tour career in his last start at the Travelers Championship.

In a tournament that requires creativity and asks players to weigh numerous variables on nearly every shot, Spieth has shown that he is able to juggle all that is asked. And while it may seem like Spieth is searching, he is actually amidst his best statistical season since 2021 when he just so happened to finish runner-up to Collin Morikawa at Royal St. George’s.

LIV Golf’s last chance

With Brooks Koepka in 2023 and DeChambeau in 2024, LIV Golf has been able to claim one of its players has reigned supreme on one of golf’s grandest stages each year since its inception. As The Open arrives, the tour has remained shut out in 2025.

Enter Jon Rahm.

The two-time major champion has found his footing ever since a lesion between his toes pulled him out of the 2024 U.S. Open. Rahm has rattled off finishes of T7, T14, T8 and T7 in the last four major championships and looks more and more like the man who dominated the game in the early part of 2023.

The Spaniard is not alone, however, as the aforementioned Koepka and DeChambeau are always worthy considerations and players like Patrick Reed, Carlos Ortiz and Tyrrell Hatton have already contended in majors this year. 

Justin Thomas needs major change

In his pre-tournament press conference at the 2025 Masters, McIlroy mentioned that he altered his major championship preparation coming out of COVID-19. Having previously treated them as run-of-the-mill events, he heightened his focus and developed a new method to attack the four biggest championships of the season. His results improved.

Thomas may well need to take a page out of McIlroy’s book. A 16-time winner, Thomas’ game still translates to the week-to-week schedule on the PGA Tour. The world No. 4 contends more often than not and remains in the thick of it over the weekend with some consistency.

Yet the only consistency he brings to majors is becoming an afterthought. Since winning the 2022 PGA Championship, the two-time major winner has teed it up in 13 majors with a résumé of results that includes seven missed cuts, five finishes outside the top 30 and one top 10 which came at a receptive Valhalla. 

The driver concerns are valid, and his inability to string four rounds together was highlighted in this championship last season (68-78-67-77). But he’s too talented, too artistic and too well-rounded to perform this poorly for this long. Something (anything!) has got to give for Thomas on this stage. 

An English drought 

While The Open moves away from England and Scotland for only the third time, what remains is a drought among those from the motherland. Not since Nick Faldo in 1992 has a man from England raised the Claret Jug and claimed the title of Champion Golfer of the Year in the tournament which means most to them.

There have been close calls, of course, including the last time The Open was held at Royal Portrush when Tommy Fleetwood finished runner up to Lowry. Fleetwood faced a putt on his opening hole of his final round to cut an overnight four-stroke deficit to just two but saw it slip by and never threatened Lowry from there. He would have been the second Englishman to win at Royal Portrush as Max Faulkner’s win came at the same site in 1951.

Others have been close as well, including Justin Rose just last year. He held the lead at Royal Troon with 10 holes to play. Coming off dropping the Masters playoff to McIlroy, perhaps there’s some good karma awaiting Rose. Major winner Matt Fitzpatrick feels primed to contend as do players like Hatton, Harry Hall and perhaps even Lee Westwood, who qualified for this championship the old-fashioned way and finished T4 in 2019.

English golfers to win The Open since World War II