5 players to watch at Open Championship as Rory McIlroy seeks to bounce back

Brian Harman will defend his title when the 152nd Open Championship takes place at Royal Troon from July 18-21.

Harman, who won by six shots at Royal Liverpool last year, failed to qualify for the Open the last time it was staged at Troon in 2016, when Henrik Stenson lifted the Claret Jug following an epic duel with Phil Mickelson.

Here, the PA news agency picks out five players to watch in the year’s final major championship.

Rory McIlroy

All eyes will be on McIlroy to see how he reacts to the gut-wrenching events of June’s US Open, when he held a two-shot lead late in the final round but bogeyed three of the last four holes at Pinehurst to finish one behind Bryson DeChambeau. McIlroy famously bounced back from his collapse in the final round of the 2011 Masters by winning his first major in the US Open two months later and did finish joint fifth at Troon in 2016, albeit a long way behind Stenson.

Bryson DeChambeau

Tyrrell Hatton

Finished alongside McIlroy in a tie for fifth in 2016, although he is the first to acknowledge that Stenson and Mickelson were in a league of their own that week. Won his first LIV Golf event by six shots in Nashville in June, a week after finishing 26th in the US Open following a costly closing 77. Finished ninth in the Masters and is a two-time winner of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.

Scottie Scheffler

Brian Harman