Rory McIlroy commits to Genesis Scottish Open

Rory McIlroy will return to defend his title at the Genesis Scottish Open in July, the tournament announced on its social media channels Wednesday.

The tournament is co-sanctioned by the PGA TOUR and DP World Tour.

“Rory returns to the Renaissance Club,” the tournament tweeted.

McIlroy is coming off a T66 at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, where he went 6-under through 14 holes in Round 1 but unraveled after that. He went 5-over for the final four holes, including a triple-bogey 8 at the seventh, including a two-stroke penalty for an improper drop.

After that he never got much going, and the tournament was shortened to 54 holes due to storms.

He authored a vintage performance at last year’s Genesis Scottish Open, making two birdies in a stiff wind to clip Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre by a shot. At the par-3 17th hole, where many players were having trouble holding the green, McIlroy hit a 5-iron to 4 1/2 feet and converted the birdie putt. At the par-4 finishing hole, which was playing dead into the wind and had seen just two birdies all day, McIlroy scalded a 2-iron that stopped just over 10 feet from the pin, then rolled in the putt for his 24th and most recent PGA TOUR victory.

“The two iron shots I hit, 5-iron on 17, and then that 2-iron into the last there, they are two of the best iron shots I can remember hitting,” he said that day, “especially under the circumstances.”

He is coming off his 17th victory on the DP World Tour; he won his fourth Hero Dubai Desert Classic last month, making that the tournament he’s won more than any other. (He’s captured three Wells Fargo Championships and TOUR Championships.) At 34, he’s starting his 15th season on the PGA TOUR, where he’s the only three-time winner of the FedExCup.

“I think I'm going into my 18th full season as a professional; basically over half of my lifetime I've been a pro golfer,” McIlroy said at Pebble Beach last week. “You need to keep it fresh; you need to try to keep inventing ways to motivate yourself.

“But I don't find that overly difficult,” he continued. “I think there's always things that you want to achieve and that you can get better at. Trying to have a growth mindset to goal-set and try to achieve certain things is something that I've just learned to do as my career has progressed.”