Rory McIlroy is hoping to keep under the radar as he starts out on his quest to win his first Open Championship this week at Royal Lytham & St Annes.
That would be in stark contrast to 12 months ago when home expectations were at their height after the Northern Ireland star had won the US Open at Congressional Country Club.
“Last year it was complete mayhem so this week it has been lovely just to be able to go about my business and prepare the way I wanted to,” he said.
“I have tried to keep it as low key as possible. I wanted to go about my business as quietly as possible and I felt that I have done that pretty well.”
The 23-year-old from Holywood admitted that in hindsight it had probably been wrong to take three weeks off before last year’s Open after capturing his first Major at the US national championship.
“It probably did affect my performance (at Royal St George’s) a little bit. I did plan on playing in the French Open but I knew my mind wouldn’t fully on it so that’s why I didn’t go in the end.
“But, obviously, that meant that by the time I got to Sandwich there were so many requests coming in, and so many things to do, I just didn’t play well enough to figure in the tournament.”
McIlroy also put his much-publicised comments about not being able to adapt to links golf down purely to his inability to live up to his own expectations that particular week.
“Those comments were just pure frustration,” he admitted. “I had really high expectations coming off a Major win. I really wanted to play well but (I didn’t and) I ended up blaming the weather, blaming the draw, blaming my luck, basically. Looking back on it a year later, I just didn’t play well enough to get into contention and didn’t handle the conditions as best as I could have.
The good news for fans of the young Irish player is that this year he arrived in Lytham with an altogether different attitude.
“I’m going to knuckle down, focus and keep fighting,” he said. “I will stay tough and try to shoot a low score even if the conditions are bad.
“I’m looking forward to it,” he added. “I feel like I’m hitting the ball great. I think it’s the best I have swung the club all year. It’s going to be all about keeping the ball in play, keeping it out of the bunkers and, if I can do that, I think I have a great chance.”
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