Major miss motivates Rory McIlroy to target Troon Open

Rory McIlroy insists he would rather have agonising close calls than no chance to win after quickly turning his US Open heartbreak into major motivation.

McIlroy briefly held a two-shot lead at Pinehurst with five holes to play but bogeyed three of the last four, missing very short putts on the 16th and 18th to finish a shot behind Bryson DeChambeau.

It was the 35-year-old's best chance to win his first major since 2014 and brought back painful memories of squandering a four-shot lead in the final round of the 2011 Masters with a closing 80.

On that occasion McIlroy bounced back to win the US Open two months later and the County Down native can respond even quicker 14 years on, with the 152nd Open getting under way at Royal Troon just 32 days after his hasty exit from Pinehurst.

"I know that I’m in a good spot," McIlroy, who revealed he had missed a supportive text from Tiger Woods due to changing his phone number after the US Open, said.

"If I think about 2015 through 2020, I seldom had a realistic chance to win a major championship in that five-year period. So I’d much rather have these close calls. It means that I’m getting closer.

"I’d love to be able to get one over the line, but as soon as I do that, people are going to say, well, when are you going to win your sixth? So it’s never ending."

After three weeks off McIlroy returned to action with a tie for fourth in last week’s Scottish Open, where he revealed he spent several days alone with his thoughts in New York to process the events of Pinehurst.

"I would say maybe like three or four days after, I went from being very disappointed and dejected to trying to focus on the positives to then wanting to learn from the negatives and then getting to the point where you become