Rory McIlroy will be desperate to win the Open Championship at Royal Portrush next weekend.
When McIlroy finally completed the career Grand Slam with his incredible victory at The Masters earlier this season, many questioned whether he had anything left to achieve.
However, the 36-year-old would surely love nothing more than to win his second Open Championship in his home country, Northern Ireland.
Three-time PGA Tour winner Johnson Wagner has now shared his thoughts on how McIlroy will perform at Royal Portrush.
Johnson Wagner predicts how Rory McIlroy will perform at The Open
McIlroy’s form has dipped since winning The Masters. He didn’t contend at either the PGA Championship or the US Open, and he even missed the cut at the Canadian Open.
But the Northern Irishman has also put in some strong performances in recent months, including a T6 at the Travelers Championship.
Yet, Wagner’s strong opinion on McIlroy’s Open prospects has little to do with his form and much more to do with his frame of mind.
“I don’t think he is going to be a factor. I know he is going to be a factor,” Wagner explained.
“We talked right after The Masters for our PGA Championship preview about how we expected Rory to come back out and play with the youthful exuberance that he used to play with when he first started winning majors in 2011 through to 2014, and I still believe that Rory McIlroy is in there.
“I think this is going to be one of the biggest majors that he plays in his career, and I think he is going to come all guns blazing.”
Fellow ex-PGA Tour player Brendon de Jonge completely agreed, suggesting that McIlroy will have been able to “reset” in his time off since the Travelers Championship.
De Jonge added: “I think Rory now, this is the first true reset that he has actually been able to have since Augusta happened, where he has had a couple of weeks and those closest to him can now say, ‘Rory come on, you have had your crowning achievement, go out there and play golf like you can.’
“I am with Johnson, I have no doubt that he is going to contend at Portrush.”
Johnson Wagner shares biggest concern about Rory McIlroy at The Open
Despite Wagner’s optimism that McIlroy can challenge the likes of Scottie Scheffler at Royal Portrush, he does have one slight worry.
For the Northern Irishman to win the Open Championship, he needs to have been practising hard to eliminate the “old habits” in his golf swing.
“The only thing that concerns me is that all the swing changes he made in the off-season that helped him hit the wedges a little flatter with better spin and the ball change,” Wagner continued.
“Brandel did a breakdown of his driver swing at the US Open, and it had reverted back to old habits, so hopefully he has taken this time and he is working at it again, because if he is not working at his golf swing, then who knows who is going to show up.
“But I think he has done that work and put that time in because this event has to mean more to him than any other tournament that he is maybe going to play for the rest of his life.”
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