The final major tournament of the year, this is a title that many players grow up dreaming of winning.
McIlroy, the home favourite, has realised that dream once before – in 2014, at Royal Liverpool.
With his triumph at Augusta, McIlroy finally completed his career Grand Slam, becoming just the sixth player ever to win all four major tournaments.
Since then, the Northern Irishman has not been in the best of form, finishing three-over at the PGA Championship before missing the cut altogether at nine-over in Canada.
He has begun to turn his fortunes around, however, finishing joint-second at the recent Scottish Open, where he lost out by two shots to American Chris Gotterup.
At the Dunluce Course in his homeland, McIlroy has a huge advantage as he targets a second major of the year and a second Open title for his collection.
Home time: Rory McIlroy is out for a second major this year
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When is Rory McIlroy playing at The Open?
McIlroy will tee off at 3:10pm BST in his Open first round on the afternoon of Thursday July 17, 2025. He will be joined by Tommy Fleetwood and Justin Thomas.
First round – all times BST unless stated
6:35am: Padraig Harrington, Nicolai Hojgaard, Tom McKibbin
6:57am: Cameron Smith, Marco Penge, Justin Hastings
7:08am: Jason Day, Taylor Pendrith, Jacob Skov Olesen
7:19am: Phil Mickelson, Daniel Van Tonder, Ryan Peake
7:30am: Max Greyserman, Byeong Hun An, Niklas Norgaard
7:41am: Jordan Smith, Haotong Li, Dustin Johnson
7:52am: Darren Clarke, Davis Riley, Lucas Herbert
8:03am Kevin Yu, Julien Guerrier, Mikiya Akutsu
8:14am: Thomas Detry, Chris Gotterup, Lee Westwood
8:25am: Patrick Cantlay, Cameron Young, Mackenzie Hughes
8:36am: Thorbjorn Olesen, Matthew Jordan, Filip Jakubik
8:47am: Henrik Stenson, Stephan Jaeger, Sebastian Soderberg
9:03am: Kristoffer Reitan, Martin Couvra, Adrien Saddier
9:14am: Takumi Kanaya, Justin Walters, Bryan Newman
9:25am: Hideki Matsuyama, Ryan Fox, Matt Fitzpatrick
9:36am: Sepp Straka, Ben Griffin, Akshay Bhatia
9:47am: Sam Burns, Aldrich Potgieter, Brooks Koepka
9:58am: Xander Schauffele, JJ Spaun, Jon Rahm
10:09am: Shane Lowry, Collin Morikawa, Scottie Scheffler
10:20am: Corey Conners, Wyndham Clark, Tom Hoge
10:31am Denny McCarthy, Nico Echavarria, Patrick Reed
10:42am Matti Schmid, Ryggs Johnston, Richard Teder
10:53am: Dylan Naidoo, Darren Fichardt, John Axelsen
11:04am: John Suh, Oliver Lindell, Jesper Sandborg
11:15am: Sadom Kaewkanjana, Riki Kawamoto, Sampson Zheng
11:26am: Stewart Cink, Matteo Manassero, Marc Leishman
11:47am Francesco Molinari, Jesper Svensson, Connor Graham
11:58am Zach Johnson, Dan Brown, Daniel Hillier
12:09pm: Adam Scott, Rickie Fowler, Ethan Fang
12:20pm: Laurie Canter, Elvis Smylie, Sergio Garcia
12:31pm: Andrew Novak, Matthieu Pavon, Matt Wallace
12:42pm: Davis Thompson, Dean Burmester, Rikuya Hoshino
12:53pm: Si Woo Kim, Shugo Imahira, Sebastian Cave
1:04pm: Michael Kim, Bud Cauley, John Parry
1:15pm: Matt McCarty, Shaun Norris, Angel Hidalgo
1:26pm: Keegan Bradley, Sungjae Im, Daniel Berger
1:37pm: Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Rasmus Hojgaard, Romain Langasque
1:48pm: Aaron Rai, Sahith Theegala, Harry Hall
2:04pm: Justin Leonard, Thriston Lawrence, Antoine Rozner
2:15pm: JT Poston, Chris Kirk, Carlos Ortiz
2:26pm: Brian Harman, Maverick McNealy, Joaquin Niemann
2:37pm: Russell Henley, Tyrrell Hatton, Min Woo Lee
2:48pm: Robert MacIntyre, Bryson DeChambeau, Justin Rose
2:59pm: Jordan Spieth, Ludvig Åberg, Viktor Hovland
3:10pm: Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas, Tommy Fleetwood
3:21pm: Harris English, Nick Taylor, Tony Finau
3:32pm: Lucas Glover, Jhonattan Vegas, Tom Kim
3:43pm: Brian Campbell, John Catlin, Frazer Jones
3:54pm: Nathan Kimsey, Jason Kokrak, Cameron Adam
4:05pm: Daniel Young, Curtis Luck, Curtis Knipes
4:16pm Young han Song, George Bloor, OJ Farrell
TV channel: In the UK, live coverage of The Open is provided by Sky Sports. The broadcasts begin at 6:30am BST on Thursday morning on both Sky Sports Golf and Sky Sports Main Event.
Live stream: Sky Sports subscribers can also watch the action live online via the Sky Go app. It’s also available to stream via NOW.
The prize money for The Open will be $17million (£12.2m) across the field, with the winner taking home $3.1m (£2.3m).
Odds via Betfair (subject to change).