Pretty much everyone in the world of golf knows that Rory McIlroy set the course record at Royal Portrush with a 61 as a 16-year-old in 2005. And the favorite in the 148th Open Championship right there this weekend? Yeah, of course, McIlroy.

But not just because of what happened 14 years ago. McIlroy is having an extraordinary year in 2019, and this year and every year the British Open (as it’s widely known outside of the U.K.) and McIlroy go together like fish and chips. He’s already won twice in 2019 (Players in March, Canadian in June) and has another nine finishes in the top 10, everywhere from California to Mexico to Florida to Long Island to Ontario. In this event his worst finish in his last four appearances (he missed 2015 due to injury) was fifth place in 2016. Additionally, he was fourth in 2017, second last year, and won in 2014. Not surprisingly, per the Hawley course fit statistics, he is the player best-fitted to the courses on which the British Open has been played in the past eight years.

Royal Portrush, located on the north Atlantic at the far north-central point of Northern Ireland, last hosted the Open in 1951. Two holes were re-done from scratch since 2005, so McIlroy technically is no longer the course record-holder. OK, sure. Their course, they can keep the records as they wish.

McIlroy revisited the course before last week’s back-in-the-pack finish up north in the Scottish Open. “I don’t know if there’s real scoring stretches,” McIlroy told Martin Dempster of scotsman.com. “The three par-fives – the second hole, the seventh and the 12th – are good opportunities, and then two short par-fours, the fifth hole and the 17th. They are your five best chances to score. There are some other holes where you might have wedges in, but the way it’s set up, I think you’ll see a lot of guys being quite conservative off the tee. The rough is pretty juicy, and even spotted around in the rough are these little sort of fern bushes. Your ball can get caught up in those and it makes life very difficult.”

Over the last eight iterations of the Open, the stats most closely associated with success have been shots gained around the green, shots gained off the tee, and shots gained in approach, in that order, with sand saves a little farther back. Those stats certainly fit a model where getting sidetracked in the rough is expensive. Other than Miguel Angel Jimenez, who is mostly playing seniors events, McIlroy leads the field in course fit, with Dustin Johnson and Adam Scott the only others within a quarter-stroke per round. McIlroy is in the top one percent of U.S./ Euro pros in shots gained off the tee, in the top five percent in shots gained in approach, and in the top quarter of player rankings in the other two stats.

Patrick Cantlay also is right up there, and he and Scott may rank as the prime challengers to McIlroy. Cantlay is in the top 15 percent of his peers in all four stats, and Scott is almost as good, in the top 20 percent of all. Cantlay, who is around a career high in his Hawley Ratings number, won the Memorial last month and has five other top-10s this year. Scott was no. 1 in the ratings back in 2014 and then sank out of sight – outside the top 30 by 2018 — but has been enjoying a resurgence. Currently he’s working on a streak of three straight top-10s (seventh in the U.S. Open, second in the Memorial, eighth in the PGA), and prepped for that with four earlier top-20 finishes this year.

As always, this event is packed with the world’s best players, including everyone in the Hawley Ratings until no. 40 Viktor Hovland, who recently turned pro, and no. 46 Scott Piercy. Among the rest, of course there is great variance in who’s doing well lately. Cantlay and Scott top the list of those playing very well. From the North American side, others who come in with strong recent resumes include 20-year-old Joaquin Niemann, Matt Kuchar, Xander Schauffele, and Gary Woodland. More youth? How about 22-year-old amateur Brandon Wu, recently of Stanford, who was 35th in the U.S. Open.

On the upswing from the Euro side are Shane Lowry (Irish but U.S.-based), onetime Masters champ Danny Willett, Michael Lorenzo-Vera, and Eddie Pepperell. Lorenzo-Vera has four top-10s in Euro events this year.

Reaching down the rankings a bit, guys outside the top 100 who might be worth some consideration include no. 133 Nate Lashley, 36-year-old PGA Tour veteran who is playing career-best golf this summer; no. 171 Paul Waring, a 34-year-old Englishman who’s hit the top 10 four times this year; and no. 235 Adri Arnaus, 24-year-old Spaniard with two runner-up finishes on the Euro Tour this year. Or even no. 241 Christiaan Bezuidenhout, a 25-year-old South African who won at Andalucia two weeks ago and has four other top-10s on three continents this year.

Highly ranked players who are not finding this summer to their enjoyment include Tony Finau, Rickie Fowler, and Justin Thomas. In a combined 19 starts since May 1, they have twice as many missed cuts (six) as top-10s (three, one each).

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Unsolicited comment by Tom: If you are interested in playing Ireland (north or south) and looking for a tour guide, you won’t go wrong by contacting Lowell Courtney at lynchpintours@btinternet.com. And Roddy was our driver; we thought he was great.