Rory, Lowry and Portrush are the flavour as Indians miss the Open for first time since 2022

The flavour this week is all about the latest career Slam achiever Rory McIlroy, the 2019 Open winner at Portrush, Shane Lowry, and the course itself, which is expected to draw almost 280,000 fans over the week. It will be the second highest number since the 290,000 attendance at the 150th Open at St. Andrews in 2022. McIlroy won the Masters in April and was T-7 a Truist but then had a short none-too-good spell at the US PGA (T-47), RBC Canadian (MC) and US Open (T-19) before he was T-6 at Travelers and tied second on Sunday at the Scottish Open.

Lowry has not won since the Zurich Classic in 2024 and was T-2 at Truist in May and has since missed two cuts at the US PGA and US Open and his best has been T-13 at the Canadian. But between the two, they have guaranteed the second largest crowd ever at the Open as the sea-side town of Portrush is bursting at its seams with fans from all over.

There will be no Indian golfers at the 2025 Open, which is a pity, since Shubhankar Sharma has done well at the last two Opens – he was T-8 at Royal Liverpool for the best-ever result by an Indian — and was T-19 last year at Royal Troon. The most appearances by an Indian at the Open is six by Anirban Lahiri and the best finish is T-8 by Sharma in 2023.

Eight Indians have played at the Open – Gaurav Ghei, Jyoti Randhawa, Jeev Milkha Singh, Arjun Atwal,, Shiv Kapur, Gaganjeet Bhullar, Anirban Lahiri and Shubhankar Sharma. Though Shubhankar is not in the field, he remains the only Indian to have played the Open at Portrush, and his appearance came back in 2019. It was his second Open appearance where he made the cut and finished T-51. In all, Shubhankar has played four Opens and made the cut each time – the most by an Indian.

There may be no Indians, but at least three players have an Indian connection. Two are Indian Americans, Akshay Bhatia, now 38th in the world, and Sahith Theegala, 46th in the world. The third is Indo-British Aaron Rai, who is 34th in the world. Bhatia and Theegala’s parents shifted from India to the US before they were born, while Rai’s grandparents hail from India.

All three have won on the PGA Tour. In 2024, they played in the PGA Tour Championships, for which only the Top-30 qualified. Right now, Bhatia has been in fair form and is lying 44th, Rai is 56th and Theegala recovering from a neck injury is 138th. Only the top-70 will qualify for the FedEx Cup Play-offs of three events. The top-70 will be trimmed to Top-50 for the second event and Top-30 for the Tour Championship.

Meanwhile, Rory McIlroy as a 16-year-old amateur shot a record 61 at this course in 2005 and had nine birdies and an eagle. McIlroy has not played at the Royal Portrush since he missed the cut at the 2019 Open. Before Shane Lowry won at Portrush in 2019, the only previous occasion on which the Open was held here was in 1951. It was won by Max Faulkner, who also won eight other titles on the then British PGA Circuit.