THE OPEN WRAP: Greatness beckons Rory

FROM STEVE KEIPERT at ROYAL LIVERPOOL

Rory McIlroy sits on the cusp of golf greatness now that he holds the Claret Jug as the 143rd Open champion. The 25-year-old fended off Sergio Garcia and Rickie Fowler on a final day when birdies flocked, recording a two-stroke victory at Royal Liverpool and setting up an intriguing Masters next April as he bids to become only the sixth golfer in history to win all four majors.

Rory McIlroy celebrates his two-stroke victory on the 18th green. PHOTO: Getty Images

In the most cosmopolitan of championships, the leaderboard on Open Sunday included a Swede, a Frenchman, two Italians, a Spaniard, multiple Americans, a pair of Australians and three Irishmen, one from the Republic and two from the North, including a dominant figure from Holywood on Belfast's eastern fringe.

Handling the spoils of victory. PHOTO: Getty Images.

"I never dreamed of being at this point in my career so quickly," said McIlroy, who at 25 years and 77 days is the third-youngest player behind Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods to win three of the four different majors. "Even though there's still one major left this year that I want to desperately try to win, I'm looking forward to next April and trying to complete the career Grand Slam."

Good scores flowed in Sunday's agreeable weather outside Liverpool. The course softened by overnight rain offered little resistance as the wind stayed down and what little breeze there was assisted players on the par-5s. Eagles and birdies were commonplace at all four on a day that gave up red numbers in large quantities. Teeing off early, angular Englishman Chris Wood toured Hoylake in 65 strokes, the same score posted later by three others. Heck, even 64-year-old Tom Watson shot 68 after a bogey at the 1st.

McIlroy's problem appeared to be not how tough the conditions might have been, rather how a very low round was likely from his closest pursuers. And those trying to reel in McIlroy threw birdie after birdie at him. Yet their problem was twofold: he made enough of his own to parry them and he started with too great an advantage.

Armed with a six-stroke lead over Fowler through 54 holes and seven clear of Garcia and Dustin Johnson, McIlroy quickly sounded a warning sign on Sunday by holing a 20-foot putt for birdie on the 1st green.

The idea, McIlroy said at the conclusion of his third round, was to grow the lead at every opportunity. Five to six, six to seven, seven to eight then more. He went seven clear at the 1st but that was as large as the gap got. Garcia twice moved within two, which was as small as the margin became.

McIlroy opens his final round with a birdie. PHOTO: Getty Images

McIlroy shrugged off any brief moments of danger. Not even his only six of the week at the par-5 5th hole then another bogey at the short 6th quelled the momentum. The mood grew sombre before a birdie at the 9th restored equilibrium to the scene and a four-stroke edge for the leader. A pulled iron into the hay short and left of the par-3 13th green could have resulted in a far worse situation and did still contribute to a bogey to trim the lead to two.

Garcia, playing without the tentativeness that has plagued him in the final rounds of past majors, combined mojo with motivation. He birdied the 1st, 3rd and 5th holes before rifling a long iron on board the par-5 10th in two and sinking the 12-footer for eagle. That trimmed McIlroy's lead to two before his two-putt birdie at the same hole extended the margin back to three.

Sergio Garcia walks off the 18th green wondering what he needs to do to win a major championship. PHOTO: Getty Images.

The Spaniard clanked one off the stands right of the 12th green, received a highly favourable bounce towards the green, saved par, pumped his fist and blew a kiss to the crowd in the stand that lent the assistance. Garcia didn't blink until he pushed a short iron into a greenside bunker at the par-3 15th then left his ball in the sand. That bogey became the mistake he couldn't afford and gave McIlroy the chance to breathe easy again.

Fowler was flawless but couldn't muster the birdies he needed to apply pressure to his playing companion. A fine three at the par-4 2nd only negated McIlroy's opening birdie. Thereafter a run of pars ended with a two-putt birdie at the 10th, where seemingly even the Tuesday morning ladies field could make four. More pars didn't make inroads as he birdied the same holes everyone else did to share second with Garcia at 15-under. Both chased valiantly and deserve accolades for chewing away at the huge lead but ran out of holes as McIlroy made a fuss-free par at the last to end two shots clear.

"I put a lot of extra work in," McIlroy said of his preparation for this Open after missing the cut miserably at Muirfield a year ago. "I practised a lot of different shots that I might need ... I prepared much better this year. I went and played four competitive rounds of links golf at the Scottish Open last week up in Aberdeen, which really helped. I came in early, got a few practice rounds in [and] felt very comfortable with the golf course."

No doubt about it, McIlroy saw the best of all the weather. The early starters on Thursday revelled in near-perfect conditions and then felt minimal breeze as the strong Friday morning winds abated that afternoon. Then came the curious decision by the R&A to play in threesomes from two tees on Saturday to avoid the forecast calamitous weather. They did so under advisement from the Met Office weather bureau, which predicted wild thunderstorms throughout the third round. It rained on Saturday but conditions never grew uglier than wet weather.

*For more images from The Open Championship final round, click here

In England, you trust weather predictions about as reliably as you do mystic fortune tellers. The R&A gambled and lost, but attempted to save face on the back of a single sharp downpour that fell shortly after Saturday's play finished.

McIlroy signalled early he was the man to beat at this Open. A bogey-free 66 built a one-stroke buffer after the first round. Another 66 in the best of the conditions during a turbulent Friday bolstered that lead to four through two rounds.

Fowler charged hard at McIlroy and matched his 12-under score after 12 holes in the third round. McIlroy responded with the most decisive run of holes in the championship. He saved par at the 13th and directly after Fowler bogeyed the par-4 14th and par-5 16th, McIlroy birdied one hole and eagled the other. A second eagle at the home hole swelled his lead to six. It happened in a dramatic blur, although the atmosphere created by that 90-minute period was one of comfortable dominance. It was as if the champion's telling moments had been scheduled a day early.

Adam Scott reacts after missing a putt on the 12th green. PHOTO: Getty Images.

"Golf is looking to someone to put their hand up and try [to dominate] and I want to be that person," said McIlroy, who will move to World No.2. "I want to be the guy that goes on and wins majors and wins majors regularly."

Overall it was a largely positive week for the eight Aussies. Bryden Macpherson suffered the ignominy of recording the worst 18-hole score at an Open this millennium when he shot 90 on day one. To his credit, the former British Amateur champion never considered withdrawing and improved by ten strokes in round two. At the happier end of the spectrum, Marc Leishman and Adam Scott joined the birdie barrage on Sunday to surge into the top-five. It was scintillating stuff from the two Aussies as every time the on-course leaderboards updated it seemed they'd both clawed another birdie out of Hoylake.

Marc Leishman fired a closing 65 to finish tied 5th with Adam Scott. PHOTO: Getty Images

Leishman signed off on the best final round at an Open by an Australian since Richard Green at Carnoustie in 2007. His eight-birdie 65 equalled the best round of the championship and lifted him from mid-pack to tied fifth, furthering his majors CV.

"Experience is a big thing," Leishman said. "I'm hitting the ball better, I'm maturing as a golfer and mentally I'm a lot better than I was. This was one of the best weeks mentally I've had. I just didn't let anything bother me and that's probably been the problem in the past."

Scott also ripped birdies at will from the Hoylake layout and was undone only by one poor swing off the 7th tee that led to a double-bogey. A 66 for a piece of fifth place was just reward for another solid week, one in which he laboured through the strongest winds for the first two days.

Tiger Woods birdies the 1st hole but had ffew highlights in the final round. PHOTO: Getty Images.

Plenty of eyes tracked a confident Tiger Woods, who arrived at Royal Liverpool insisting winning a fourth Open was a realistic outcome. An opening 69 fuelled that suggestion before a lacklustre 77 in perfect conditions on Friday required him to make his only birdie of the day at the 18th just to make the cut. Weekend rounds of 73 and 75 left him back in the pack. Yes, he's returning from back surgery. Yes, he's short on competitive play. But one has to wonder whether Tiger will ever win another major or return to golf's No.1 ranking.

Royal Liverpool proved itself to be a worthy venue, even if it might be the worst layout on the Open rota, 'worst' being relative within a superb collection of links courses. None of the short holes inspire giddiness standing on the tee, the 12th and 14th are almost identical par-4s, the par-5s are generous for modern touring pros and there's the quirky internal out-of-bounds on several holes. Yet the region embraced the second coming of The Open since 1967 and on both occasions the course crowned a popular king. That counts for as much as anything in the success stakes.

For McIlroy, next year's Masters suddenly became a whole lot more interesting. A Green Jacket there gives him the career Grand Slam a few weeks before his 26th birthday. And unlike Phil Mickelson's US Open quest, if he fails to conquer Augusta National next year time is on the plucky young Northern Irishman's side.

THE OPEN LEADERBOARD:

1. Rory McIlroy (N.Ire)    66-66-68-71–271            £975,000

T2. Sergio Garcia (Esp) 68-70-69-66–273            460,000

T2. Rickie Fowler (US)   69-69-68-67–273            460,000

4. Jim Furyk (US)          68-71-71-65–275            280,000

T5. Marc Leishman (Vic)           69-72-70-65–276            210,500

T5. Adam Scott (Qld)    68-73-69-66–276            210,500

ALSO:

T54. Matt Jones (NSW) 71-74-72-73–290           

T58. John Senden (Qld)            71-74-75-71–291

T58. Jason Day (Qld)    73-73-74-71–291           

72. Rhein Gibson (NSW)           72-74-74-78–298

MISSED CUT (146): Brett Rumford (WA) 75-73–148; Bryden Macpherson (Vic) 90-80–170

 *For the full leaderboard, click here

THE AUSTRALIANS' SUNDAY REPORT CARD:

John Senden (71, +3, T-58, B+): Equalled his best round of the week and broke par for the round but was dusted by three shots by 64-year-old playing partner Tom Watson.

Jason Day (71, +3, T-58, B+): A carbon copy of Senden's round – one-under-par with four birdies against three bogeys. Next for both men: a bold tilt at the US PGA Championship next month.

Rhein Gibson (78, +10, 72nd, D-): Played his closing six holes in two-under but appeared out of puff after his third round grouping with Woods and Spieth. Still, cut made and goal achieved, even if Gibson ran last among those to play on the weekend.

Matt Jones (73, +2, T-54, B-): Sunday's round epitomised Jones' week - never great and never terrible. The Sydneysider tasted every aspect of Open Championship golf in his debut showing.

Marc Leishman (65, -12, T-5, A++): Brilliant performance from a player growing in major mettle. Made every putt he looked at and almost capped his championship with a 72nd-hole eagle that would have given him the outright low round of the week.

Adam Scott (66, -12, T-5, A+): Like Leishman, he saved his best for Sunday. A double-bogey on the 7th didn't stop his momentum but did remove any chance of collecting some silverware. Scott cited a "stagnant 27 holes in the middle of the tournament" as the difference.

REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK

– ALL week Rory McIlroy has hinted at two trigger words he's repeated to himself during rounds. He declined to reveal the exact words but promised on Saturday evening that he would on Sunday should he win. Australian golf writer Bernie McGuire toured the media centre today taking £1 bets from fellow media folk prepared to guess the two magic words. No one correctly guessed "process" and "spot", the latter word a reference to rolling his ball over a spot on the line of his putts, meaning the £70 collected will be donated to McIlroy's Foundation.

– This year marked the debut of the Open Qualification Series, where existing tournaments around the world (including the Australian Open) became the entry method to the field at Hoylake rather than separate global 36-hole qualifiers. Ten of the 32 OQS qualifiers this year made the cut, a proportion roughly comparable to the period under International Final Qualifying. Best among them was Italian Edoardo Molinari, who finished equal seventh.

– The Royal & Ancient Golf Club votes on whether to admit female members on September 18, the same day Scotland casts votes about becoming an independent country. Whichever way that referendum goes, the R&A insists it will not impact future Open Championships. The next two Opens are scheduled for Scotland; St Andrews for McIlroy's defence next year and Royal Troon in 2016.

– The US PGA Tour commissioner must already have an eye towards that 2016 Open at Royal Troon. I played Troon last Sunday, and on the timesheet shortly after my group was a foursome booked under Tim Finchem's name.

Jason Day has vowed he will play in Australia this summer. PHOTO: Getty Images.

– Australian fans can rest assured Jason Day will definitely be coming home during our summer tournament season. Day is yet to confirm which events he will contest, but was adamant we'll see him in action in his homeland. "I really look forward to coming back down to Aus," he said.