By Art Spander
Special to NewsdaySANDWICH, England — Rory McIlroy said he no longer needs to answer the question, which of course is whether he can win a major, because a month ago he won the U.S. Open with ease and grace and a record score.
Now, there is another question: How does he react to the expectations created by his victory at Congressional? Whatever privacy or anonymity he had -- and after contending in the three previous majors there wasn't much left -- is gone.
"[Winning] has lifted a huge weight off my shoulders," said the 22-year-old McIlroy. "Now I can talk about winning my second one after having won the first. So it's a nice pressure to have lifted off you."
Winning the second one at Royal St. George's where the British Open begins Thursday along the English Channel, is what others also are talking about.
McIlroy, filling the void of Tiger Woods, absent for a second straight major, is the favorite of the legal oddsmakers, at 13-2, and of the crowds, since as a Northern Irishman, he is a Brit.
The wind was up Tuesday at St. George's, a rolling collection of undulating greens, huge bunkers and bizarre tales. In the 1949 Open here, Harry Bradshaw elected to hit a ball out of a broken beer bottle in the second round, botched the shot and two days later lost a playoff to Bobby Locke.
"The thing is with this wind, you're going to have to keep the ball low," said McIlroy. "But sometimes it's hard to run the ball onto these greens, because they can go so many different ways. I think you're going to need very strong ball flight, especially if the wind still picks up the way it is.
"With the rough not being up, I think this golf course is going to be all about the second shot and making sure you get the ball in the right position on the green, because these greens are so slopey, you're going to have 25-, 30-footers all day if you do hit the greens."
McIlroy seems to have hit the jackpot. The last two weeks, the Fleet Street press sent reporters and columnists swarming to his home in the Belfast, Northern Ireland, suburb of Holywood (pronounced the same as the movie city) to discuss his past, present and future
"It's nice to be the center of attention," said McIlroy, who had been in a less flattering way when he blew a final-round lead in the Masters in April.
"But yeah, I mean, I've prepared the exact same way that I've prepared for the last few major championships, and I feel that it works for me, coming to the course a week before, getting in a couple of practice rounds, and then not getting [back] until Tuesday afternoon.
"Well, I used to do it under the radar. I'm not sure I'll be able to do that anymore."
Phil Mickelson, preceding McIlroy into the interviews, was asked if he thought the young champion could "live up to the hype."
"I don't know if I would say that," was Mickelson's response. "I think the thing about Rory is he plays golf with a real flair and real charisma. He plays it with youthful exuberance, and it's fun to watch somebody play golf like that . . . He draws people to him."
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