Why McIlroy Had "A Few Million Reasons To Feel Better" After Portrush Missed Cut
The four-time Major winner discusses his emotional missed cut at Royal Portrush in 2019


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The four-time Major winner discusses his emotional missed cut at Royal Portrush in 2019
Why McIlroy Had "A Few Million Reasons To Feel Better" After Portrush Missed Cut
Rory McIlroy heads into this week's Open after missing the cut last time out at Royal Portrush in 2019, when he played in an Open Championship in his home country for the first time in his career.
It was such a big week for the Northern Irishman that he chose to skip the Irish Open for the first time as a pro.
He opened up with an quadruple-bogey 8 and then a 78 in the first round at Portrush and went onto to record an emotional missed cut, before bouncing back in emphatic style.
He would win the FedEx Cup and the WGC-HSBC Champions later in the year and was also named PGA Tour Player of the Year.
Rory says it didn't take him long to get over the week on the Dunluce Links and that he had "a few million reasons to feel better" [$15m worth of reasons] after winning his second FedEx Cup the following month.
Related: What is Rory McIlroy's net worth?
The four-time Major winner even thinks that the missed cut was the catalyst to helping him return to the World No.1 position.
"I mean, not really. I ended up winning the FedExCup in 2019, so it gave me a few million reasons to feel better ," he joked ahead of this week's Championship at Royal St George's after being asked how that week in 2019 affected him.
"I didn't dwell on it that much. It was tough, but the great thing about golf is there's always next week. You can always get back on the horse, and that's what I did.
"I moved forward, set my sights on other things like the FedExCup, like -- that was basically all there was left to play for that year.
"I won a World Golf Championship in China. I got to world No. 1 at the start of 2020, and then the pandemic hit and the world sort of changed.
"If anything, it was a catalyst for me to play some of my best golf.
"I left Portrush obviously very disappointed, but by February of 2020, a few months down the line, I got back to No. 1 in the world. So I didn't dwell on it that much."
Elliott Heath is our Senior Staff Writer and has been with Golf Monthly since early 2016. He graduated in Sports Journalism in 2016 and currently manages the Golf Monthly news, courses and travel sections as well as our large Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages. Elliott has interviewed some huge names in the golf world including Sergio Garcia, Thomas Bjorn, Bernd Wiesberger and Scotty Cameron as well as a number of professionals on the DP World and PGA Tours. He has also covered the 2022 Masters from Augusta National as well as three Open Championships including at Carnoustie in 2018 when he was inside the ropes with Tiger Woods. He has played 31 of our Top 100 golf courses, with his favourites being both Sunningdales, Woodhall Spa, Old Head and Alwoodley. He currently plays at West Byfleet Golf Club in Surrey, where his handicap index floats anywhere between 4-6. His golfing highlight is making albatross on the 9th hole on the Hotchkin Course at Woodhall Spa, and he has made one hole-in-one.
Elliott is currently playing:
Driver: Honma TR20
3 wood: TaylorMade SIM2 Max
2 iron: Mizuno MP-18 MMC Fli-Hi
Irons: Mizuno MP5 4-PW
Wedges: Cleveland RTX ZipCore 50, 54, 58
Putter: Odyssey White Hot OG #5
Ball: Titleist Pro V1x
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