“I walked 18 holes with Rory McIlroy. Here’s what I saw.”

Breaking: Rory McIlroy’s streak of near-misses is over after a hard-fought victory in St Andrews.

Granted, the Irishman beating dad Gerry one-up over the Old Course this morning is unlikely to make it onto his Wikipedia page but a win’s a win.

The McIlroys teed off alongside Rory’s former Ryder Cup teammate Nicolas Colsaerts a little after 8am on Wednesday in preparation for this week’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.

The 35-year-old arrives in Scotland in form that is, at best, hard to define. Back-to-back runner-up finishes in the Irish Open and BMW PGA Championship are illustrative of both a player on form and a man struggling to convert contending into winning.

Dating back to the 2023 US Open at Los Angeles Country Club, McIlroy has finished second five times. There have been four wins in there, too, but the heartbreaks are starting to echo louder than the fist-pumps.

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There is a sense amongst some that the world No.3 has lost his ruthless streak. Appearing on The Chipping Forecast podcast last month, fellow pro Eddie Pepperell said: “I hesitate to say this but one wonders if he doesn’t have a huge killer instinct in strokeplay events even in spite of the many victories he’s had,

“And it makes you wonder how many wins he would have if he had the killer instinct that Tiger had or you could argue someone like a Brooks Koepka or Jon Rahm has.”

For whatever it’s worth, he even struggled to put away his dad in their match today. Giving away five shots on each nine and dozens of yards on each tee, McIlroy was three-up with three to play but only shook hands on the 18th after Gerry missed a short left-to-right slider for par.

Still, there were plenty of positives to take from his latest birl around golf’s grandest stage.

It’s a course he knows inherently and an event he’s fond of. Finishing third in 2007, on only his third start as a professional, effectively sealed his European Tour card for the following year. You know the rest.

Well, that was a rare treat. 18 holes following @McIlroyRory around St Andrews with about two other people for the most part. A wonderful Wednesday morning. pic.twitter.com/iKdnbVefjl

— Michael McEwan (@MMcEwanGolf) October 2, 2024

Colour-matching his outfit to the heavy sky that followed the group for the opening six holes, McIlroy found the Swilcan Burn with a 2-iron off the first, but got up and down for par. There and the fifth were the only times on the front nine – playing into the teeth of a fresh breeze – that he missed the fairway.

No great surprise. McIlroy has been formidable off the tee this year. He ranked fifth on the PGA Tour in that particular Strokes Gained category.

The aggressive line he took off the seventh took Colsaerts by surprise.

“Driver?” asked the incredulous Belgian.

Driver indeed. McIlroy cut the corner of the hole, coming up just short of the the gargantuan Shell bunker some 310 yards away.

He then drove the green at nine, making it to the turn in a zippy hour-and-a-half. He spent very little time ‘practising’, as such. The only significant time he spent on any green, in fact, was on nine – and even at that, he only hit an extra couple of putts.

The pace slowed ever so slightly on the back nine as McIlroy stopped for a chat with various people playing the opposite holes. One of those was Jimmy Dunne, the former PGA Tour Policy Board vice-chairman and the man largely responsible for attempting to broker peace in golf’s civil war. A close ally of McIlroy’s, Dunne famously quit the board in May, citing a lack of “meaningful progress” in turning the framework agreement between the PGA Tour and Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia into something more robust.

Dunne is playing alongside Danny Willett this week. Also in the field are PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and the governor of the PIF Yasir Al-Rumayyan. Could St Andrews be the new Malta?

McIlroy, one suspects, would welcome that. The Irishman’s frustration at the competing factions’ inability to strike a deal has been well documented. Only a fortnight ago, ahead of the BMW PGA Championship, he cut an exhausted figure as he explained how a combination of the Department of Justice and players “looking out for themselves and their best interests” was holding up proceedings. With all of the key figures assembled in St Andrews this week, could we see proof positive that there’s no place like ‘Home’?

Time will tell.

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Regardless, McIlroy’s priority is winning this week. By the time he had exchanged pleasantries with Dunne, David Howell, Dubai-based aviation entrepreneur Allan Stanton, and stock trader Scott DeSano, the clouds had given way to blue skies and the crowd following him had swelled to 50 or so. He has aura, this guy. Even in a place as congenitally endowed with atmosphere as the Auld Grey Toon.

An aggressive tee shot on the 17th finished up in the first cut, with McIlroy’s approach bouncing through the green and just over the road beyond. No matter. A cute pitch left him with a ten-foot putt for par which he duly converted. A couple more of those this week and he’ll be in good shape.

A routine par at the last and he was gone, spirited away via hugs with Tommy Fleetwood and his caddie Ian Finnis, to an afternoon of meetings. Such is the price of being one of golf’s most marketable commodities.

Tomorrow, the real work begins. Dad will still be there but, this time, the scores will count.

McIlroy has made no secret of his desire to win the Dunhill team title with his father and with Gerry turning 65 on Sunday, there’s no time like the present.

Individual glory, though, is what defines him and rightly so.

In 17 years as a professional, he has tasted it close to 40 times. Lately, though, it has eluded him, teasing him, tantalising him, tormenting him. It’s right there, seemingly just beyond his grasp, if not his wit.

It’s a cruel sport. Maybe the cruellest. But every journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. If a one-up win of no material consequence over his old man is that first step for McIlroy, so be it.

Michael McEwan is the Deputy Editor of bunkered and has been part of the team since 2004. In that time, he has interviewed almost every major figure within the sport, from Jack Nicklaus, to Rory McIlroy, to Donald Trump. The host of the multi award-winning bunkered Podcast and a member of Balfron Golfing Society, Michael is the author of three books and is the 2023 PPA Scotland 'Writer of the Year' and 'Columnist of the Year'. Dislikes white belts, yellow balls and iron headcovers. Likes being drawn out of the media ballot to play Augusta National.

Deputy Editor