Collin Morikawa will defend his title when the 150th Open Championship takes place at St Andrews from July 14-17. Here, the PA news agency looks at five players to watch in the year’s final major championship.
McIlroy has finished second, eighth and fifth in the majors this season after finally ending his bad habit of getting off to slow starts, although he has not really been in contention to win on the back nine in the final round.
Injury prevented him from defending his Open title in 2015 at St Andrews, where he carded an opening 63 in 2010 and shot 80 in the second round in terrible weather before recovering to finish third.
The world number one’s brilliant run of form, which saw him win four times in the space of 57 days, including a first major title in the Masters, eventually came to an end with a surprising missed cut in the US PGA, where he double-bogeyed his final hole to miss out by two shots.