McIlroy will contest The Open at childhood course Royal Portrush but is keen to emphasise the wider context of a major being played in Northern Ireland

When Rory McIlroy says he is treating this like any other Open Championship it is not clear who he thinks he is kidding. Maybe he is more worried about persuading himself than he is anyone else, that it is his way of coping with all the emotional pressure he feels about playing here in what he has repeatedly described as one of the most important tournaments of his life. Every major matters but this one matters more than most, for him and for his country.

McIlroy lives in Florida but he still calls Northern Ireland home and he has an interesting, informed perspective on how significant this Championship is. “Sport has an unbelievable ability to bring people together,” he said. “We all know that this country sometimes needs that. This has the ability to do that.

“Talking about legacy, that could be the biggest impact this tournament has outside of sport: people are coming here to enjoy it and have a good time and forget everything else that goes on.”

Quick guide The Open 2019: First round tee times Show Hide 6.35am: Darren Clarke, James Sugrue (a), Charley Hoffman

6.46am: Emiliano Grillo, Sung Kang, Thomas Thurloway (a)

6.57am: Andy Sullivan, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Alexander Levy

7.08am: Chan Kim, Zander Lombard, Brandon Wu (a)

7.19am: Richard Sterne, Romain Langasque, Matthias Schmid (a)

7.30am: Padraig Harrington, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Andrew Putnam

7.41am: Bubba Watson, Eddie Pepperell, Rafa Cabrera-Bello

7.52am: Phil Mickelson, Shane Lowry, Branden Grace



8.03am: Alex Noren, Mike Lorenzo-Vera, Sam Locke

8.14am: Webb Simpson, Sergio García, C.T. Pan

8.25am: Ryan Palmer, Andrea Pavan, Dylan Frittell

8.36am: Kyle Stanley, Robert MacIntyre, Andrew Johnston

8.47am: Mikko Korhonen, Oliver Wilson, Curtis Knipes (a)

9.03am: Ian Poulter, Sungjae Im, Kiradech Aphibarnrat

9.14am: Henrik Stenson, Xander Schauffele, Graeme McDowell

9.25am: Haotong Li, Russell Knox, Bernd Weisberger

9.36 p.m. Jason Kokrak, Connor Syme, Austin Connelly

9.47 p.m. Zach Johnson, David Duval, Corey Conners

9.58am: Francesco Molinari, Bryson DeChambeau, Adam Scott 10.09am: Rory McIlroy, Gary Woodland, Paul Casey

10.20am: Rickie Fowler, Kevin Kisner, Hideki Matsuyama

10.31am: Jim Furyk, Si-Woo Kim, Jimmy Walker

10.42am: Luke Lista, Alexander Bjork, Paul Waring

10.53am: Shugo Imahira, Nate Lashley, Benjamin Herbert

11.04am: Mikumu Horikawa, Callum Shinkwin, Garrick Porteous

11.15am: Prom Messawat, Matthew Baldwin, Jack Senior

11.36am: Tom Lehman, Joaquin Niemann, Miguel Ángel Jiménez

11.47am: Byeong Hun An, Jorge Campillo, Chris Wood

11.58am: Joel Dahmen, Adri Arnaus, Dimitrios Papadatos 12.09pm: Stewart Cink, Rory Sabbatini, Innchoon Hwang

12.20pm: Erik Van Rooyen, Kurt Kitayama, Jake McLeod

12.31pm: Ryan Fox, Shaun Norris, Dongkyu Jang

12.42pm: Tyrrell Hatton, Keith Mitchell, Thomas Pieters

12.53pm: Justin Thomas, Tommy Fleetwood, Thorbjorn Olesen

1.04pm: Brooks Koepka, Louis Oosthuizen, Shubhankar Sharma

1.15pm: Billy Horschel, Jazz Janewattananond, Aaron Wise

1.26pm: Jordan Spieth, Marc Leishman, Danny Willett

1.37pm: Cameron Smith, Adam Hadwin, David Lipsky

1.48pm: Paul Lawrie, Chez Reavie, Justin Harding 2.04pm: Takumi Kanaya (a), Tom Lewis, Brandon Stone

2.15pm: Lucas Glover, Joost Luiten, Nino Bertasio

2.26pm: Ernie Els, J.B. Holmes, Abraham Ancer

2.37pm: Brandt Snedeker, Lee Westwood, Brian Harman

2.48pm: Justin Rose, Tony Finau, Lucas Bjerregaard

2.59pm: Dustin Johnson, Jason Day, Keegan Bradley

3.10pm: Tiger Woods, Matt Wallace, Patrick Reed

3.21pm: Jon Rahm, Patrick Cantlay, Matt Kuchar

3.32pm: Kevin Streelman, Doc Redman, Robert Rock

3.43pm: Adrian Otaegui, Yuta Ikeda, Isidro Benitez

3.54pm: Patton Kizzire, Sang Hyun Park, Yuki Inamori

4.05pm: Yoshinori Fujimoto, Doyeob Mun, Andrew Wilson

4.16pm: Gunn Charoenkul, Yosuke Asaji, Ashton Turner Top-20 ranked players in bold; (a) denotes amateurs. All times BST

McIlroy has often said how lucky he was to grow up oblivious to the Troubles, although his great uncle was murdered in a sectarian killing in 1972. “It’s amazing to think 40 years on it’s such a great place,” he said. “No one cares who they are, where they’re from, what background they’re from, but you can have a great life and it doesn’t matter what side of the street you come from.

“To be able to have this tournament here again speaks volumes about where the country is and where the people that live here are now. We’re so far past that and that’s a wonderful thing.”

There will be almost a quarter of a million spectators here this week, most of them pulling for him. McIlroy did not grow up in Portrush but he learned a lot of his golf here, on the chipping green while his dad was playing in the local tournaments. “They were my summers,” he said.

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In winters he would be doing the same thing along the corridor through the open door of his mother’s washing machine. Nike has made him a set of polo shirts with a little washing machine logo on them to wear this week and there are a couple of machines set up in the centre of the village for everyone else to have a go.

When McIlroy turned 10, his dad brought him here to play for his birthday present. Six years later he broke the course record when he shot 61 in the Northern Ireland Amateur Open, 33 out, 28 back, three lower than anyone had gone before.

“Portrush has been a big part of my upbringing,” he said, even if the course is different now since they had to build two new holes and lengthen the rest to bring it up to Championship standard.

McIlroy was worried it might have changed in other ways too. “I got here last Saturday thinking the course is going to change, the set-up for an Open might be different.”

Quick guide McIlroy at home and Lowry on form: five players to watch Show Hide Rory McIlroy, Northern Ireland It is a fine line for McIlroy between taking inspiration from this home Open and being overawed by the occasion. McIlroy’s recent record in this major is terrific – 2013 marked the last time he finished outside the top five – with a lush, softer Portrush presumably working in his favour. Day one tee time: 10.09am with Gary Woodland (US), Paul Casey (Eng). Jon Rahm, Spain The Spaniard loves links golf in Ireland; success at the Irish Open at Lahinch earlier this month was his second there in three years. Rahm’s share of third at the recent US Open at Pebble Beach continued his trend towards major victory. Understandably, he is many people’s fancy here. Day one tee time: 3.21pm with Patrick Cantlay (US), Matt Kuchar (US). Henrik Stenson, Sweden The Swede is recovering from his latest career slump, with injury an explanation for troubles of not so long ago. The 2016 champion, so deadly accurate from tee-to-green, finished inside the top 10 of the US Open and did not shoot a round higher than 69 at last week’s Scottish Open. Day one tee time: 9.14am with Xander Schauffele (US), Graeme McDowell (NI). Adam Scott, Australia Darren Clarke has tipped Scott for success after playing practice holes with the Australian last week. Scott’s Open record is decent rather than excellent but he has given the impression of a career renaissance after starting a family and putting woes impacted on the former Masters winner’s form. Day one tee time: 9.58am with Francesco Molinari (It), Bryson DeChambeau (US). Shane Lowry, Ireland Four Open missed cuts in succession would not draw you towards the 32-year-old. Yet Lowry has a history of playing well in Northern Ireland and is enjoying arguably his most consistent year on both sides of the Atlantic. Success in Abu Dhabi was followed by strong performances in two of the three majors. Day one tee time: 7.52am with Phil Mickelson (US), Branden Grace (SA

He had not seen his mum in three months and they had planned to meet for dinner at eight that evening. It was later than he would like but he needed it to be. “I was thinking I was going to have to spend some time around the greens,” he said.

It turned out they were exactly the same as they had always been. “I got on the road back home and rang them and said: ‘Can we move dinner up? Because I finished early.’ There’s no difference. It’s the same course. I was making it a little bit bigger in my head than it needed to be.”

He often seems to have that problem. It has been five years since he won his last major, at Valhalla in 2014. While he says he feels this is “the most consistent period of golf I’ve ever played” he still seems to be searching for the edge he had at his very best. Watching him play, listening to him talk, it never feels as if he is quite sure where to look for it. He turned up at the Masters this year with a new performance guru, Dr Clayton Skaggs, and was raving about OG Mandino’s self-help book, The Greatest Salesman in the World, while on Wednesday he was talking again about his meditation routine. Maybe McIlroy will find what he needs right here at home, where he played so much brilliant, carefree golf.

“It can go one of two ways, right? I’ve always felt I’ve played my best golf when I’ve been totally relaxed and loose and maybe that environment is what I need. But at the same time I can’t just put the blinkers on and pretend that’s not all going on. If you can look at the bigger picture and you can see that, it takes a little bit of the pressure off. I still want to play well and concentrate and do all the right things but at the same time having that perspective might just make me relax a little bit more.”

McIlroy sums it up by saying his mantra for the week is to “look around and smell the roses”, although there are not too many of them out in the wild fescue.

“This is a wonderful thing for this country and golf in general and to be quite a big part of it is an honour and a privilege. I want to keep reminding myself of that, that this is bigger than me, right? This is bigger than me.”

It is bigger than him, yes, but it will be a lot bigger again if he wins the thing.