00:00All right, the 153rd Open Championship will be in Northern Ireland, teeing off Thursday morning at Royal Portrush.
00:09Let's hear from a few guys. Now, of course, Rory McIlroy is from Northern Ireland.
00:14He was very gassed up in 2019 when they went there for it, and he missed the cut as he got out of the gates very poorly.
00:21He's had quite the year. He completed the career Grand Slam with the Masters and really has not played well since,
00:27aside from last week when he finished T4, of course, at the Scottish Genesis Open.
00:33Let's hear from Rory right now, Scotty. He has had Royal Portrush circled on his calendar for a very long time.
00:41Yeah, I think the two weeks off after the Travelers, just to reset, to get over here, a bit of a change of scenery has been really nice.
00:50Yeah, when I was looking at the calendar for 2025, this was the tournament that was probably, I don't know, circled even more so than the Masters for different reasons.
01:09So it's lovely to be coming in here already with the Major and everything else that's happened this year.
01:14So, you know, I'm excited with where my game is. I felt like I showed some really good signs last week and, you know, feel like I'm in a good spot.
01:24And, you know, not that last week was a pure preparation week, but it definitely, I feel like it put me in a good spot heading into here.
01:32Well, like, you know, I'm going to ask you, like, he needed the Masters more than people need oxygen, and he got it, and he got the career slam.
01:42I'll never believe that this was bigger for him, except for being from Northern Ireland and that he's already done it.
01:51So I think that, you know, when he said a change of scenery, it's almost like saying, I got to get out of America and go play back home.
01:58And that's what that meant to me. But I don't believe for one minute that the one he wanted the most in his life was the Masters.
02:05That's all there is to it.
02:07Yes, that was the one. He's been searching for that forever. He has been searching to complete that.
02:13Now, look, I do believe that this is, this would be a massive thing for him.
02:19You know, we talked when Rory won the Masters about what more does this guy want or have to do in his career?
02:26He doesn't have to do anything else, but he would tell you now, now that he's got that whole career Grand Slam thing out of the way,
02:33winning a major in Northern Ireland at Royal Portrush would absolutely be something that he's, like he said, he's had it circled for a very long time,
02:43especially since he played poorly there when they were there in 19, and he missed the cut.
02:47So he's going to be looking for it this week.
02:49But who won the last time we were at Royal Portrush in 2019?
02:53Of course, that was the Irish Bear, Shane Lowry.
02:57He was at the podium yesterday.
02:58And of course, the first question was about how he partied after he won that Open Championship.
03:05Interesting first question, isn't it?
03:07Here to talk about golf and all anyone wants to talk about is drinking.
03:10But yeah, I celebrated pretty well.
03:13And I was also a funny game, like where you lose a lot more than you win.
03:22And I've always been a firm believer that when you win, you need to try and celebrate those victories.
03:27So I did that that night.
03:28No one will ever compete with Stuart Sink.
03:33And what he did is he drank for a year straight.
03:37He was like these guys that win the Stanley Cup.
03:40They show up naked at places and jump into the ocean, things of this nature.
03:45Strip clubs, you name it.
03:46Your boy Stewie Sink partied with a claret jug like no other and was also not very willing to give the claret jug back.
03:58No, he was not.
04:01Speaking of Lowry, one more thing as he looks to, of course, win again at Royal Portrush.
04:06He changed his schedule up a little bit here.
04:08You know, he got out to a very hot start this year.
04:10Played very well the first five months of the season.
04:12But he hit the skids a little bit, especially a really bad performance at the U.S. Open last month at Oakmont.
04:18So what did Shane do?
04:19Took some time off.
04:20He has not played in a while.
04:22Didn't even play last week in Scotland.
04:25But he says he feels all the better for it.
04:27It's been an amazing couple of weeks.
04:30I haven't been home to Ireland since Christmas as well.
04:32So I've been home for the last three weeks.
04:34So we've had a nice time being back home.
04:36And I feel like I kind of feel like a little bit rejuvenated and, you know, ready to go again.
04:42And I've had a busy season.
04:45And it's about to be another busy kind of next sort of three or four months as well.
04:50So, yeah, I feel like I'm ready to go again.
04:52I'd love to see it at Port Rush, right on the ocean.
04:58It's an incredible golf course, an incredible setup, an amazing, dangerous links course.
05:05And then it's not going to get any better than Beth Page and the Ryder Cup in the fall.
