OAKMONT, Pa. — Rory McIlroy’s run since completing winning the 2025 Masters and completing career grand slam a couple months ago has largely been forgettable. Battling form and motivation since reaching the apex of his professional career, the Masters winner has set his sights on the next mountain he is eyeing following a middling performance at the 2025 U.S. Open.
“I climbed my Everest in April, and I think, after you do something like that, you’ve got to make your way back down, and you’ve got to look for another mountain to climb,” McIlroy said. “An Open at [Royal] Portrush is certainly one of those.”
Since slipping on the green jacket, McIlroy has failed to factor in the last two major championships. His final-round 67 at Oakmont Country Club pushed his name up the leaderboard but it was not enough to continue his top-10 streak in the national championship, which ended at six on Sunday.
Next up for McIlroy is the Travelers Championship, a PGA Tour signature event, preceding a move from Florida to London with his family. That sets up his participation in the Scottish Open as a warm-up prior to The Open, which this year is being hosted by Royal Portrush in his home country of Northern Ireland.
McIlroy shockingly missed the cut the last time the Claret Jug was up for grabs at Royal Portrush in 2019. That Open was won by Shane Lowry, a fellow Northern Irishman and McIlroy’s best friend on the PGA Tour. McIlroy similarly missed the cut at The Open last year following consecutive top-six finishes at the major in 2022-23.
The five-time major champion insists he will be out of this funk by the time the tournament he won in 2014 returns to his home country in July. Despite his recent string of woe, he is listed 13/2 to win The Open, second on the odds board behind Scottie Scheffler (4-1), per FanDuel Sportsbook.
“If I can’t get motivated to get up for an Open Championship at home then I don’t know what can motivate me,” McIlroy said. “I just need to get myself in the right frame of mind. I probably haven’t been there the last few weeks. But as I said, getting home and having a couple weeks off before that, hopefully feeling refreshed and rejuvenated, will get me in the right place again.”
McIlroy’s missed cut at the 2024 Open came in spectacular fashion as it was the first major he played his heartbreaking loss at that year’s U.S. Open. This after McIlroy came excruciatingly close to winning the 150th Open at the Old Course at St. Andrews.
The Open will mark McIlroy’s first tournament in Europe since his Masters win and career grand slam triumph. The Ulsterman will surely be welcomed back like a king as he attempts to add to the celebration by notching his sixth career major championship and raising his second Claret Jug.
“Hopefully I can celebrate with them on Sunday night with the Claret Jug and the green jacket,” McIlroy said. “Look, it will be amazing to go home and play in that atmosphere and see a lot of people that I still haven’t seen yet. I am really looking forward to it. It was nice to end this week with a bit of a positive note with the way I played [Sunday], and yeah, I’ll just be looking forward to and trying to get myself prepared for Portrush.”