Tattoos are forever … but so is the 2023 European Ryder Cup team. Led by Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm (with a little Shane Lowry energy thrown in), the squad took over Marco Simone two years ago, starting with a 4-0 lead and eventually turning that into a 16.

The last time the British Open came to Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland, Rory McIlroy missed the cut. Will he claim his second major of the year this time around?

The simplest one is to wager on the in-form golfers, a list led by Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler. McIlroy may get the nod over Scheffler in some circles this week because he's playing on home soil at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland.

Open Championship golfers and the British Open favorite to win ahead of the year's final major at Royal Portrush

Erskine, the club’s then-secretary of 35 years—who many credit with bringing the Open to Portrush—was waiting for a defining moment. Some visual cue from the universe to signify the accomplishment that Portrush, after decades of political turmoil on the island of Ireland before a peace in 1998, had enticed the R&A back to this part of the world.

Rory McIlroy was there for the most consequential moment of Shane Lowry’s career, kneeling greenside when his best friend secured t

Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy are favorites at the 2025 Open Championship. Here's where the rest of the 156-golfer field at Royal Portrush stands

If we have any quarrel with the mural, it's that Lowry stands alone. Portrush proper is home to barely 6,000 souls, yet the R&A expects over a quarter-million pilgrims this week. The mathematics should spell chaos, but when an entire community vibrates at the same frequency—when everyone wants to be here—logistics become footnotes. It just works.