The sports manager and former professional golfer gives his thoughts on The Open at Portrush and Rory McIlroy’s chances of a famous win in his home country.

Andrew “Chubby” Chandler has told Rory McIlroy to set his sights on winning another Grand Slam of major titles in one season next year, once he’s overcome the emotions of 2025.

Speaking in the lead-up to the tournament at Portrush in Northern Ireland – where world No.1 Scottish Scheffler is / favourite in the latest Open Championship betting markets – Chandler warned McIlroy fans that the pressure to perform in front of a local crowd could actually lead to the British great underperforming yet again.

In our exclusive interview, Chandler also gave his thoughts on the Ryder Cup and why Team Europe may hold an edge over their hosts later in the year.

What can we expect from Rory McIlroy at The Open?

It’ll be harder with it being Portrush, because he’s not great under that sort of pressure. He took eight on the first last time, didn’t he? You and I would make six.

I think it puts an awful lot of pressure on him and an awful lot of outside noise all week. So I certainly would not call it a gimme, and I think it’s almost harder for him than it would be in some other places. The country. The self-imposed pressure. The stuff going on around him. The expectation. It’ll be harder than the Masters in a way.

The monkey is off his back this time, so it will be a different pressure. He’ll be trying so hard to live up to local expectations, but it’s not the same pressure as trying to win the Grand Slam.

He only moved into his house last week, didn’t he? So he’s moved into his house, and I think you give him the last half of this year and a winter to get back on track, and I think he’ll come out next February fully focused, ready to go again.

Somebody should tell him that he should try and now win the Grand Slam twice. How many people have done that? 

Does he need that sort of challenge to fire him up again? Earlier this year he appeared to suggest he was lacking interest.

That can be from being unsettled at home. It can be because his game’s not quite right. It’s easy for him to say right now, “I’m not right”. But I think he’ll reset completely, and he’ll go again next February with a brand new attitude and mind again.

He owes nobody anything apart from himself, because he’s still an underachiever in a funny sort of way. He should have won his Grand Slam 10 years ago.

So I think you’ll find that he comes next year and has a full go at it again, and he’ll retract his senior statement in about 10 years’ time because that’s what he does, isn’t it? I mean, the Ryder Cup was an exhibition when he was with me. Look at him now.

He’s not bad at turning back as he changes his mind. That senior comment will definitely be like that because they don’t play for the cash. He’s got it wrong. He thinks they’re playing for the cash. They’re not. They’re playing because they like competing at golf. Ernie Els is up for it to be amongst the lads, not to try and earn 50 grand.

When Lowry’s a senior and a few of his peers, like Rose and whoever is around him, then it’ll be different.

Do you think he’ll feel he owes the home crowd?

It’s the hardest pressure, isn’t it? He’s playing for somebody else, not himself. Imagine how many locals want to win there.

We’re not ruling him out because if he has a great week, he’s very much the favourite, isn’t he? You can’t ask me who’s going to win because you can’t tell me what the weather’s going to be like. That’s an unbelievably weather-dependent course.

What are you expecting from the Dunluce Links given the summer we’ve had?

It’ll be playing difficult, but it won’t be playing long. I played Birkdale last week. Birkdale was absolutely magnificent. It’s always been just about my favourite course in the world, certainly a links course, but the changes they’ve made have made it better. It’s fantastic.

Also, 10 years ago, they probably couldn’t regulate how much water they put on. Now it’s scientific. They know they put on this much there and that much there. It was staggeringly good, Birkdale. I’ve lived obviously near there all my life, and I always thought that Hillside and Birkdale were nearly as good as each other. I played Birkdale on the Friday, and I played Hillside on the Monday. Hillside wasn’t in the same class.

The weather is the challenge at Portrush. At the moment, there are 25-mile-an-hour winds for two days. That’ll bring Harrington in. I’m serious. Somebody like him in those sorts of conditions could be a player. Darren Clarke could be a player in the 25-mile-an-hour wind.

It’s a funky links course, isn’t it? There’s runoffs and they’ll have it how they want it to be. It’ll be firm. Fairways will be fairly narrow. They’ll have fed the rough so the rough will be a bit thicker. It’ll be a good test.

You backed Tyrrell Hatton to win a major this year. Could he do it at The Open?

I can’t get away from thinking Hatton was going to win a major. Hatton to me is definitely on the line to win a major. He should have won the US Open, and this will practically almost be more up his streak than that was.

He controls his ball flight really well. You have to control your ball flight, and he controls it well. He hits it pretty straight most of the time. He would be my No. 1 UK bet.

Does Tommy Fleetwood have a chance this year?

I like Tommy a lot, but I can’t see him winning now.

He should have won on the PGA Tour, shouldn’t he? I’m not throwing Ian Finnis under the bus, but nobody looked at the caddy at all when he didn’t win that last one. Well, the caddy was half to blame. The caddy was involved in the decision-making. Wrong club at 18. Wrong club.

It’s funny, people gun for certain people, don’t they? Finnis has escaped it. You think of the stick that Rory’s man gets.

What can Billy Foster do for Collin Morikawa?

I think it’s a very good thing for both of them. Billy’s caddied in 35 Opens. Maybe 40.

He knows links golf. He knows Portrush. He knows what it’s like to win a major, although it’s only one, but he’s been in contention a lot.

Morikawa is obviously a decent player. Not my favourite. For somebody like Morikawa to have Billy Foster instead of some nobody from Idaho, that’s got to be a plus.

Over a week it will be worth more than two or three shots. Condition knowledge. Course knowledge, everything. Just knowledge of The Open.

For Billy to go and caddy, he wants to carry for somebody that’s got a chance, not somebody that’s playing for a decent week’s 20th. That’s not what he’s about. He’s past that. When I heard about it, I thought that it makes a lot of sense for both of them.

It could make a difference to him being in top-10 contention. Whatever it does, it’ll improve his chances, so if he’s playing well and he was going to finish top 10, he might win it. If he’s playing average and he was going to finish 25th, he’s going to finish 10th. Whatever happens, it will improve his performance, provided they get on that is.

I think Billy is smart enough to think it’s only for two weeks and I have got a chance. If somebody like Billy wins the open, he’ll get £300k. Not quite life-changing, but it’s not far off.

What do you think of Robert McIntyre’s chances?

He’s got a decent chance, and I think he’s good enough mentally to do it. His game obviously is windproof. I would think that ideal conditions for Bob McIntyre are probably 25 miles an hour. I’m not saying that would be ideal for him but I think that might increase his chances.

So I really think he’s got a very good game to win The Open. Well, to win anything.

What have you made of Max Homa?

Why on earth is there such a fuss about Max Homa? First of all, when he was playing well, that was all cooked up by his own social media, which he now doesn’t want, and then if you have a look at his record, he’s won two Manchester Alliances and a Yorkshire district golf unit. He’s won naff all. What is the deal with Max Homa? And now it’s the big comeback. Well, he’s not. He’s just a journeyman player. He’s playing like he should do. It’s unbelievable.

He’s won the CIMB Classic in Malaysia, a hybrid PGA Tour event. He’s won Sun City, a nice European Tour event. He’s won a Korn Ferry Tour event. He won the “something” invitational, 36 holes and by the sea.

He’s won five tournaments that are nothing. They built him up into a superstar, then they knocked him down to nothing. Why is there a fuss about Max Homa?

Has Scottie Scheffler come back well from his hand injury?

Yeah, very good. I would imagine with a reasonable week of weather, and I think he can play in the wind, although I’m not sure he can play in 30-40 miles an hour, he’ll be alright.

I would say Scheffler is probably the joint favourite with Rory for Portrush. I would think somewhere near a joint favourite and with reasonable weather, he’ll have a proper chance.

Xander Schauffele can obviously do it too because he did it. Who’s the bolter? I thought about this last night, and I couldn’t think of one. It’ll be one of these young Americans.

One from Texas who can play in the wind. There’ll be half a dozen good ones, and one of them will be a Texas lad that can really play in the wind. Because they don’t fear anything anymore. They’re all so well trained and drilled psychologically that the thought of leading The Open after three rounds, or winning The Open, isn’t as daunting as it was 15, 20 years ago.

You very rarely see anybody take 76 in the last round to win the tournament. Extenuating circumstances at Bethpage, but you don’t see many of them toss it in.

What were your thoughts on the US Open?

That US Open was amazing, wasn’t it? That last day was fantastic, and Spaun was amazing.

I grew to like Spaun a lot at the TPC. I thought Spaun would have won if they’d have finished off on Sunday night. I like his game, and you have to be my age to actually know what I’m talking about here, but he reminds me of Lee Trevino. Small, stocky, similar swing, similar shape, has it under control all the time. That was Trevino.

I liked him. I thought he was nice. I thought he was great the way he took it, accepted it, the way he started battling, hung in and came back. I thought it was a brilliant, brilliant display.

Golf’s been great recently.

What did you make of the way they set up the course for the US Open?

It nullified people with a good short game. The whole course is built out of having greens 14 on the stimp. That’s not good, is it? That’s just tricking it up to me.

Whatever they’d have done, they could have played it down the M6, and they got a good leaderboard. I know I’m being facetious, but it just didn’t do it for me.

When you miss the green by five yards and you’ve got to smash it back on the green, well, the guy with a good short game then at a disadvantage, isn’t he? You shouldn’t be putting people at a disadvantage. You should be letting people’s skills come out.

I thought the way it was set up, tee to green, was actually quite good. The only thing that made me wonder was when a ball ran down the fairway so fast, because the fairways are cut so short, that it runs into the rough or a divot. That to me is not quite right, but you’re not going to get it perfect anyway. It produced a great tournament, so they’ve done something right.

Shane Lowry won at Portrush in 2019. Can he find the right formula again?

Shane’s gone a bit like Tommy Fleetwood. He’s struggling to actually get anything finished.

I don’t think his game’s quite as good as it was, maybe two or three years ago. He just looks out of sorts. He looks in bad form, doesn’t he?

What do you make of The Open with the playoff qualifiers they’re bringing in next year?

I don’t like it. It’s like being at a LIV event. It sounds like something that a YouTuber has dreamt up. Does it need it? Put it this way. This is for content creation, isn’t it? I don’t think it needs it. But it can’t be a negative because it is what it is, but do they need it?

Is this the new boy’s idea? Is this him putting his mark on it? The one spot really doesn’t do it for me.

It’s really interesting though, because a couple of times in the last week I’ve noticed and remarked on how many people aged 20 to 30 are playing golf now. It’s definitely that sector that LIV have hit, I think. It’s not older and it’s not younger. There’s not loads more 16-year-olds playing, there are loads more 25-year-olds playing. And that’s probably good, isn’t it? Full Swing made a big difference with the youngsters.

Has Full Swing had an impact on the players too?

No, because the players now are all seeing how much the best players on the PGA Tour are making, that they don’t need to do that.

What it has done is that it’s played all over the place like it said it would. It gets great crowds where they don’t usually have golf. So Adelaide and those venues that don’t get Top Golf, they get big, big crowds.

Where I find it difficult to work out what they’re doing is what happens when this raft of players are all too old or not good enough?

Who are they going to bring in? Because they’ve got to suddenly sign a load up, haven’t they? Because the international series has worked out quite well, hasn’t it? Every week, you see about 10 or 12 of them playing somewhere. Patrick Reid messes up the whole system because he plays the European tour. I love him. So I have no idea what they’re going to do.

I heard a whisper that the PIF were going to buy the European Tour and Wentworth, and their No. 1 player lives at Wentworth, so that seems reasonable to me. If they did that, I think Wentworth will be worth about £250million.

In the grand scheme of things, that’s Brooks Koepka. To have Rory there fronting up the new entity and get Rory to persuade Lowry and all those guys to come and play more often. It would work.

For all I know, that’s what they’re doing. I don’t know. When I say that about Wentworth, it’s not up for sale, but it’s buyable. It would be a great thing for the PIF to have one of the best golf clubs in Britain, in London, as theirs. You know, you could see them using it for meetings, near Heathrow.

Is the openness to have LIV players feature so prominently at the Ryder Cup a sign that this split could soon be coming to an end?

They are, slowly, but it’s unbelievably slow. They’ve already got a 2026 schedule so it’s not happening next year because they’re playing in South Africa next year, aren’t they? I don’t know anything about what’s happening apart from nothing’s happening.

• SCCG Management. The Gambling Industry’s Global Connector. Access Here.
• Source: https://blog.betway.com/golf/chubby-chandler-portrush-will-be-harder-than-the-masters-for-mcilroy/