Rory McIlroy has all the luck these days, it seems, including winning majors, celeb girlfriends and even bringing the weather with him to St Andrews.
McIlroy returns to the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, where he first announced himself as a professional, aiming to hunt down Luke Donald in the Race To Dubai and to prove a regretted outburst after the Open doesn’t mean he wants to just be a fair-weather golfer.
Not that he might be tested this year at the three-cornered Pro-Am event which starts with the A-listers at Kingsbarns Links this morning.
Temperatures hovered in the mid-20s on Wednesday with the flags barely flicking against the poles, and the old jokes about Dunhill weather seem irrelevant with the forecast set for similar through the weekend.
After playing Sandwich in July, McIlroy said he did not think he could play in testing weather conditions. Now he has admitted that when he said that it was just frustration that he had failed to follow up his US Open triumph.
He said: “I was very frustrated, cursing everything the draw, the weather, the way I played and, looking back, it wasn’t the right thing to say.
“If you want to be a great golfer, you have to try and play well in all conditions.
“It will be great to stay like this but, if not, it’s a challenge for myself to see if I can get better in windy weather.”
As for catching Donald, McIlroy still thinks it’s possible and will spend the next 12 weeks on the road towards that aim.
His travel diary since two weeks ago details Monaco, Man United versus Chelsea and St Andrews, and continues after the Dunhill to Korea, China, the Bahamas, China again, Hong Kong, Dubai and Thailand.
By far the least exotic destination on the list was Leeds, where he spent two days with fitness coach Steve McGregor, but only three or four days will have been at home in Holywood until he gets back on December 23.
“I’m looking forward to it,” he said. “I think I can still produce a few good weeks and get closer to Luke. There’s this (with £515,000 to the winner), the HSBC in Shanghai, Dubai all big-money events.”
Dad Gerry holed his second for an eagle on the 18th on Wednesday, so the pro-am title may not be safe from a McIlroy assault as well, and he has advice for the new pros James Byrne, Tom Lewis and others seeking to emulate what he did four years ago and secure their playing card by a high finish here.
“I played at the first stage of Tour School before I got here and came in with no expectations, no pressure on me,” he said.