One tournament’s loss is another one’s gain. And for the golfy folk in East Lothian the confirmation that Rory McIlroy will be skipping the Irish Open will have them hanging the bunting up on the A198 though Gullane.
Instead of playing in the Irish showpiece at Lahinch, McIlroy will compete in the Aberdeen Standard Investments Scottish Open at The Renaissance Club.
There’s a huge and obvious reason why he needs to be careful in his scheduling, of course. The Open Championship heads to Royal Portrush on the Antrim coast for the first time since 1951 and local hero McIlroy needs to be in tip top condition for the “biggest event of his life.”
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The Scottish Open takes place the week before the Open itself. The Irish Open, meanwhile, is staged the week before the Scottish. For McIlroy, who has hosted the Irish Open for the past couple of years, something had to give.
“If there is ever a year when I feel I can miss this Irish Open, it’s this year,” he told BBC Northern Ireland. “If I was to play the Irish Open, the Open Championship would be my third event in a row.
“For me, that’s not the best way to prepare for what could be the biggest event of my life. I want to play the week before to get tuned up on a links course and then go straight into the Open.
READ MORE: McIlroy asks for Scottish Open to move date in 2019
“I love the Irish Open. I've supported it in my whole career. The people of Ireland are still going to see me playing golf because I'm going to play The Open Championship and I'm sure a lot of people will travel from down south."
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