PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland — Rory McIlroy will assuredly receive the loudest ovations throughout the British Open. McIlroy, a native of Northern Ireland and the third-ranked golfer in the world, has already drawn hordes of spectators to his practice rounds at Royal Portrush Golf Club, the tournament site and a course he has played since he was 10.

But forget that McIlroy is the presumptive favorite as the Open returns to his golf-crazed home for the first time in nearly 70 years. When the Open begins on Thursday, he knows the moment will be “bigger than me.”

“To be able to have this tournament here again, I think it speaks volumes of where the country is and where the people that live here are now,” McIlroy said, referring to the three decades of bloody political turmoil known euphemistically as “the Troubles.”

“We’re so far past that,” he said, “and that’s a wonderful thing.”

Ian Bamford, who was the North of Ireland Amateur Open champion in 1954 and 1972 and has been a member of Royal Portrush since 1944, recently discussed the effects of the conflict, which claimed some 3,600 lives, and what it meant for his beloved game’s position in Northern Ireland.