Birkdale fan Rory McIlroy already has one eye on St Andrews for 2027 Open

But, before he’s even teed off in this edition, the multiple Masters champion already has one eye on next year’s tournament on the Old Course in St Andrews.

McIlroy was gutted when he lost out to Australian Cameron Smith in the 155th staging at the Fife venue in 2022 - and he’s going to be a man on a mission when he returns there in 12 months’ time.

“St Andrews,” replied McIlroy, the 2014 winner, in a flash to being asked what his favourite venue is for the Claret Jug joust. “The Open at St Andrews just feels different, just like the US Open at Pebble Beach feels different.

“I've only played in two Opens at St Andrews, but they've been my favourite as a player and also were my favourite ones growing up and watching. It sort of helped that Tiger [Woods] won a couple of them early on.”

McIlroy is making his 17th appearance in this event and was asked if there were any courses on the rota that he’d grown to appreciate more as he’s played them. “No,” he replied. “I would say I've appreciated a couple less since I've played them.”

Birkdale is staging the event for an 11th time, with past winners having included Peter Thomson, Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino, Tom Watson and Johnny Miller.

“I think one of the common things you hear about Birkdale is it's very fair for a links golf course,” observed McIlroy. “The fairways aren't overly undulating, so when you land the ball in the fairway here, it seems like it stays on the fairway.

“There's not a ton of blind shots, which I've never really had a problem with in other links courses, but that's quite a common thing that people say. But I've always liked this course. I first played here in the Amateur Championship and then played an Open back here in 2017.

“You know, if you were to poll every player in the field, I'd say it would be up there in terms of being everyone's favourite Open venues to play for sure.”

Defending champion Scottie Scheffler is trying to take the positives of his streak of making 78 consecutive cuts ending in last week’s Genesis Scottish Open as he bids to become the first player since Padraig Harrington did the trick at this venue in 2008 to successfully defend the Claret Jug.

“You never want to have a weekend off, but going into a tournament when you're defending, there's always a bit more stuff to do. So it wasn't the worst thing in the world, albeit it was quite frustrating,” he admitted.

“Sometimes having a couple days off, resetting, getting some time away allows you to reset the mind, reset the body. And just kind of get back to feeling even and at peace.”

Aaron Rai, making his first appearance on English soil since landing a maiden major win in the PGA Championship at Aronimink in May, spoke in his press conference about leaving a note for Pablo Larrazbal during last week’s Genesis Scottish Open.

“I felt it was the right thing to do,” said Rai. “We’ve played together quite a bit together in the past. I’d heard that he’d been struggling a little bit during the season, so I felt like it was just the right thing to do.”

Rai was asked if someone had done the same thing for him at some point and revealed that he’d probably received the ultimate letter in golf.

“After the PGA, I received a handwritten letter from Jack Nicklaus, which was kind of surreal when we opened the mail,” he said, smiling. “Yeah, for someone like that to take the time to write to me after the PGA, it definitely shows the class of what Jack is about.”