Early clue: Unlike Pinehurst, when he gambled away his almost certain US Open win, Rory McIlroy didn’t run away yesterday. Even though the Northern Irishman couldn’t cope with the wind on the second day either, missing fairways and greens at Royal Troon in a row and delivering the worst 36-hole score at an Open for eleven years with 11 over par. Nevertheless, he answered the media’s questions afterwards in an almost tidy manner and said that he was sure of a free weekend relatively early on in round two.
The Open Championship 2024: “22 holes and I’m thinking about where I’m going to go on vacation”
“Obviously got off to the worst start possible today, being 6-over through six. But then played the last 12 holes pretty well, bogey-free. The wind got the better of me on Friday at Augusta, and then the wind got the better of me the last two days here”, McIlroy analyzed after his second round at The Open Championship 2024. As a result, the world number two was already thinking about his vacation plans after the major quite early on: “Yeah, I think once I made the 8 on the 4th hole, that was it. 22 holes into the event and I’m thinking about where I’m going to go on vacation next week. Yeah, that was basically it. I mean, I knew from then I’d sort of resigned myself to the fact that I wasn’t going to shoot, whatever it is, 4- or 5-under from there on in to make the cut.”
On August 1, McIlroy will represent the Irish colors together with Shane Lowry at the Olympic golf tournament at Le Golf National near Paris. Meanwhile, his ex-manager Chubby Chandler is apparently in need of headlines again and has come forward with speculation that McIlroy’s chaotic private life, including his recently revealed marital problems, are to blame for the 35-year-old’s major misery. At least not everyone is pointing the finger at caddie Harry Diamond again.