PORTRUSH, NORTHERN IRELAND | The beginning of the end of major championship season arrives Thursday at Royal Portrush, where a long-awaited Open Championship comes to life on the edge of the Irish Sea.
This is when the backstory of returning this championship to Northern Ireland fades and it becomes about the here and now.
It’s about the Open Championship itself, the potential for wind and wet, and about the men chasing the Claret Jug.
It is, as any tournament tends to be, a collection of questions awaiting answers both big and small.
Q: Is it possible Rory McIlroy could complete a story that dreamers have envisioned for years, winning the Open in his homeland?
A: It’s more than possible given how McIlroy has played this year and the sense of comfort he has despite the immense expectations surrounding his competitive return to the place he shot 61 as a 16-year-old.
Listening to McIlroy on the eve of the championship, he sounded like a man who’s found a calm in the supportive storm around him.
“This is bigger than ...
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