Every player in the 154th Open Championship field at Royal Birkdale is carrying some version of the same weight this week. But Rory McIlroy thinks one man is about to feel it more than most: Tommy Fleetwood, who grew up nearest to these dunes.

"I think there's already enough pressure on anyone in this field to play well for themselves, so to add that extra layer on top of that is always pretty difficult," McIlroy said when asked about Fleetwood's chances during Tuesday's pre-tournament press conference. "Tommy coming back here, he grew up five minutes away. But I feel like Tommy’s more level-headed than I am, and maybe he won’t fall into that trap like I did in 2019."

That 2019 Open was a brutal lesson for McIlroy. The Championship had returned to Northern Ireland for the first time in 68 years, and the home crowd was desperate to see him win.

He carded a quadruple-bogey on his opening hole at Royal Portrush and never recovered. He eventually missed the cut in front of his home crowd, who were cheering him to a Claret Jug.

McIlroy got a second chance last year when the Open returned to Royal Portrush, finishing tied for seventh. A respectable finish, though Scottie Scheffler ultimately won the title.

"I felt like I handled the second time a little better than the first," McIlroy added during the same interview, per golftoday.co.uk. "But it’s a tough environment. It’s a great environment but tough in a way that you just feel the extra expectation on your shoulders, and you feel like you’re trying to play well for everyone else and not for yourself."

Fleetwood, who learned the game at a municipal course down the road and snuck onto Birkdale with his father and friends as a kid, is now chasing his first major title on home soil. He will surely feel that pressure.

"It's obviously very, very special," said Fleetwood, who made his first Open Championship cut at Royal Birkdale after overcoming a 6-over 76 opening round back in 2017.

Tommy Fleetwood Isn't the Only Golfer Facing This Extra Pressure Though

Matt Fitzpatrick is in the mix too, and he arrives in the best form of his career: three PGA Tour wins in 2026, and a career-best Open finish last year where he tied for fourth.

"It will be interesting to see," McIlroy said. " I’m playing with Matt tomorrow, but I think a lot of those guys are pretty level-headed, and they’ll go out there and stick to their routines and do their thing, and it will be great."

Justin Rose, who famously holed a chip on the 72nd green at Birkdale in 1998 as a 17-year-old amateur to finish tied for fourth in his first Open, is back nearly three decades later and still chasing the major he's never won on home turf. He's coming off a tie for third at this year's Masters.

Aaron Rai, meanwhile, already delivered one fairytale this season, winning the PGA Championship at Aronimink in May.

No Englishman has won The Open since Nick Faldo in 1992, and no Englishman has won it on English soil since Tony Jacklin in 1969 — a drought that could add another layer of pressure to the English players in the field.

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Written by

Md Saife Fida

Edited by

Siddharth Shirwadkar