TV & Satellite Week – 13 July 2019

26 TV&Satellite Week

Sport week

Will home support

help Rory McIlroy

win a second Open?

Your ultimate guide to the best of the week’s live action

WORDS: RICHARD MCCLURE. PHOTOS: ALAMY, GETT Y, PA IMAGES, US PGA TOUR

The Open

Championshipp

Rory McIlroy aims to win

the Claret Jug on home soil

THE

MAIN

EVENT

The Open

Championship tees

off in Northern

Ireland for the first

time since 1951 on Thursday with a stellar line-up

competing for the famous Claret Jug over the spectacular

Dunluce Links at Royal Portrush. This year’s Open will be

the richest in the 159-year history of the tournament, with

the winner walking away with a cheque for £1.5million.

Here, we look at five of the main contenders...

LIVE GOLF

From Thursday, Sky Sports Golf HD

& Sky Sports Main Event HD

JUSTIN ROSE

England’s former world No.1

has never won the Open in 17

attempts, but recorded his best-

ever finish last year when he tied

for second place – bettering his

fourth place as a 17-year-old

amateur in the 1998 Open. This

year, the 38-year-old comes to

Portrush on the back of a great

display at the US Open, where he

tied third. ‘I’m getting closer and

I’m getting hungrier,’ he says.

FRANCESCO MOLINARI

The 36-year-old Italian will be defending his title after

his victory at Carnoustie last year, and is aiming to

become the first player to win back-to-back

titles since Pádraig Harrington in 2008. He

is the only European in history to win all

five matches in a single Ryder Cup after

his brilliant performance last year.

‘Defending a title is always special,

but defending it in Portrush, where

the Open has not been for so long, is

going to be extra special,’ he says.

RORY McILROY

The Ulsterman, who won the 2014 Open, will be

cheered all the way by the Portrush crowd and has a

better knowledge of the course than anyone else in

the field. In 2005, when he was just 16, McIlroy set a

new course record with a stunning round of 61. The

course has undergone several changes since then,

but the prospect of winning the Claret Jug on home

soil is something that the 30-year-old relishes.

‘I hold the record on the old course, but it would be

special to come back to the

Open and break it on the

new one,’ he says.