The Irish at Royal Birkdale: Seven Players, Three Big Stories

The Open returns to Royal Birkdale on July 16th, and if you're Irish, you don't need ten storylines. You need three.

Three players, three completely different places in their careers, and three completely different reasons to be glued to it.

Rory: Playing With House Money

For the first time in his career, Rory McIlroy arrives at an Open with nothing to prove. The Grand Slam is done. Then he went and defended the green jacket in April — back-to-back Masters, joining Nicklaus, Faldo and Woods as the only men to do it. Six majors now. Only Vardon, among Europeans, has more.

The rest of his major season has been quieter. A top ten at the PGA Championship at Aronimink, five back of Aaron Rai. Then Shinnecock, where the wheels came off on Saturday's back nine — a 40 that turned two under into six over and a finish outside the top 20.

But here's the thing: he called it himself walking off the course. Links golf was coming, his favourite few weeks of the year, back home. Birkdale suits him — he was fourth there in 2017 behind Spieth. A freed-up Rory on a links course in July is the most dangerous version of him there is.

Pádraig: The Form Horse Nobody's Pricing In

Pádraig Harrington won the US Senior Open on Sunday. Not scraped it — a final-round 66, the low round of the day, to win by four. His third US Senior Open, tying Miller Barber's record, and his fourth senior major. He didn't three-putt once all week.

It's not just a senior story either. At the PGA Championship in May, Harrington — 54 years old, invited back every year as a past champion — finished T18 at Aronimink, comfortably the best of the Irish challenge that week and proof there's still real golf left in him against the regular tour.

Now he heads straight into the Scottish Open and then Birkdale, in the middle of a run of eight straight tournaments, putting as well as he says he has in years.

And Birkdale is his course. 2008. Defending champion, gale-force conditions, winning at three over par — the first European to go back-to-back at The Open since James Braid in 1905-06. He knows every hollow of the place.

Will a 54-year-old win The Open? Almost certainly not. But an in-form Harrington on a course he's won on, in the wind, with nothing to lose? Each-way money has been wasted on far worse. At the very least, expect him hanging around the cut line making the young lads uncomfortable.

Shane: Everything to Prove

Nobody Irish has more riding on this week than Shane Lowry.

The 2026 season has been brutal on him. A blown lead on the 18th in Dubai in January. The Cognizant Classic in March, where one swing on the 16th tee cost him a title with his daughter waiting greenside. Then the hardest one: solo fourth at Augusta going into Sunday, a historic second career Masters hole-in-one already in the bag that week — and a final-round 80, the joint-worst of the day, sliding to 30th.

Since then: T44 at the PGA, missed cut at Shinnecock, no top-20 since March, world ranking drifting into the 40s. After the US Open he split with caddie Darren Reynolds and put Dermot Byrne back on the bag — the man who carried it at Portrush in 2019.

That's the detail that matters. Lowry at his best is a links player, full stop. The Claret Jug at Portrush, the game built for wind and firm ground, the short game to survive Birkdale's elevated greens. He struggled there in 2017, but he's a different player now — when the head is right.

An Open is either exactly what he needs or exactly what he doesn't. That tension is why he's the most compelling watch of the three.

And Four More in Green

The big three aren't travelling alone — seven Irish players will tee it up at Birkdale.

Darren Clarke is back among the past champions, and Tom McKibbin brings the LIV contingent's Irish flag, having booked his spot through the qualifying series in Hong Kong.

Then there are the two stories that make The Open what it is. Stuart Grehan, an Offaly man like Shane, won the Amateur Championship at Royal Liverpool last month — 18 months after retiring from professional golf. That win gets him Birkdale and a Masters invite, meaning two Offaly men at Augusta next April.

And David Howard, a 27-year-old Cork amateur, came through Final Qualifying at Dundonald last week. A qualified mechanic who spent five years at Audi Cork before chasing golf full-time, ranked outside the top 1,400 in the world amateur rankings, and an ambassador for Cystic Fibrosis Ireland having been diagnosed at seven. He'll hit shots at the same major as Rory and Scottie. If you're not rooting for him, check your pulse.

The Week Ahead

Seven Irishmen, one course that has been good to us before — Harrington's 2008 win is still one of the great Irish sporting moments. Whether it's Rory swinging free, Pádraig rolling back the years, or Shane finding it again with an old friend on the bag, there's a version of this week that ends very well for Irish golf.

Whatever happens, we'll be watching every shot — probably gripping the couch as hard as they're gripping the club.

Speaking of grips — if yours are as worn as Shane's patience this season, sort them before your next round. Shop Low Chaser →