Golf legend Rory McIlroy has been told he will never clinch another Open Championship due to his playing style, according to Brian Twite, the last surviving player from the 1951 Open. The Open Championship is a prestigious event in any top golfer’s diary, rotating between links courses within the UK.
In 2025, the tournament will return to Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland, where it has only been held twice before. Back in 1951, Twite competed on the County Antrim course during the 80th Open, which was the first to be held outside England or Scotland. Out of the 148 players who entered, Twite is the last standing. The R&A returned to Portrush in 2019, with Irishman Shane Lowry taking the win, and they plan to do so again this summer. However, Twite doesn’t foresee a triumphant homecoming for McIlroy either this year or in the future.
Speaking to the Telegraph, Twite said: “The Open is the tournament that every professional wants to win, far more than the US Masters, which is an invitational, so doesn’t have all the best players.
“I think [Shane] Lowry will win again [this year]. He is the best putter and has the perfect game for Portrush. I can’t see Rory McIlroy, or Adam Scott or Justin Rose ever winning an Open Championship in the future. They are good at target golf, but they hit the ball too high for links golf. You can’t hit it high at the Open. The best players play a low ball.”
McIlroy’s last major victory was a distant 11 years ago, and his most recent appearance at Royal Portrush concluded with him painfully missing the cut. In contrast, his Ryder Cup colleague Lowry emerged as a commanding -15 winner in 2019, reports the Mirror US.
Reflecting on that day in 2021, Lowry said: “I’ll never forget driving down (on day one). It must have been like 6:15am, and I’ll never forget the crowds. Thursday morning was probably the most nervous I’ve ever been on the first tee of a tournament, ever. I knew everybody had tickets for the weekend, so the first thing you don’t want to do is go and miss the cut.”
While McIlroy failed to advance, Lowry did, and after a hard-fought contest with Englishman Tommy Fleetwood, the Irishman pocketed the £1.5million prize.
“I knew it was going to be Irish people out there in their droves on Saturday. I was ready for it,” Lowry added. “I got down onto the tee, and I’m looking around. The crowd are going mental. I’m just taking it all in, like, ‘This is incredible’. My name was announced and the crowd kept on cheering. The ball’s in the ground, and I’m ready to go, and they’re still cheering. It was a little bit off-putting if anything. I just tried to hit the best shot I could. To be honest, I just tried to keep it between the white posts!
“[On Sunday] I got up, I barely had breakfast, I didn’t have lunch. I genuinely think if I didn’t win on that Sunday I still wouldn’t be over it. It took me a while to get over Oakmont, but this was a whole bigger deal than Oakmont. The first tee on Sunday was probably one of the hardest places I’ve ever been.”
Lowry continued, remembering the closing stages of his final round: “I could not believe that was happening to me. Twelve months previous, I was lying in the car crying to myself.”
