Rory McIlroy has been at Royal Birkdale for an early scouting trip ahead of The Open, and will continue his lighter playing schedule as he won't tee it up in tournamernt golf again until the Scottish Open.
McIlroy's gameplan for the year has been to play less but focus more on the Majors, regularly skipping PGA Tour tournaments to take scouting trips to Augusta, Aronimink and Shinnecock Hills.
And he's doing it again, as McIlroy is missing the final Signature Event of the year at the Travelers Championship and instead is having a look around Royal Birkdale - bumping into three-time Claret Jug winner Sir Nick Faldo while he was there.
McIlroy gave Faldo his Birkdale verdict and confirmed his pre-Open plans only include the Scottish Open - but could his schedule get him in hot water with the PGA Tour?
McIlroy obviously successfully defended his Masters title at Augusta National after taking almost a month off following The Players and making several day trips down Magnolia Lane.
He's played just once in between the Majors since then to focus on preparation, and finished T7 at the PGA Championship and T32 at the US Open despite being close to a challenge.
And he told Faldo that he decided to keep the same plan in place for the final Major, playing just the Scottish Open and playing some links golf ahead of The Open.
"I am going to play the Scottish Open so it will be nice to get a few reps in, get a card in my hand, do all that," McIlroy said on a video posted to Faldo's social media channels.
"It's good to get up here and play early. I've been trying to do that at every major championship, which is working out for me.
"Try to play a bit of links golf, get used to these conditions again."
Doing a bit of fieldwork for Sky Sports at Royal Birkdale, ahead of The Open... and look who I bumped into. 👀 pic.twitter.com/Hqaq8pM7XTJune 25, 2026
McIlroy has recently moved back to the UK to a new home in Wentworth, so has been spending time settling in - and has obviously been playing golf in his new neighborhood judging by his SUnningdale polo short from the video.
The Scottish Open and Open Championship will take McIlroy to just 11 counting events towards the minimum of 15 the PGA Tour requires members to play in.
And McIlroy doesn't seem to be on track to make it to that number, as he's not set to play in the 3M Open, Rocket Classic or Wyndham Championship before the FedEx Cup Playoffs begin.
So even if he plays all three of those, he'll come up one event short on 14 - and he's not going to play in any of the Fall Series events that follow.
It remains to be seen how well that goes down at PGA Tour headquarters.
'One of the best' - Rory Mcilroy's Birkdale verdict
Back on Birkdale, McIlroy finished fourth behind Jordan Spieth at the Southport venue back in 2017, while his one Open victory came at nearby Royal Liverpool.
And he added to Faldo, who played his first Open Championship at Birkdale, that he thought it was one of the best courses on the Open rota.
"I've always thought Birkdale is one of the best on the Open rota, so excited to be back," said McIlroy.
"It's good. A little bit different from 2017, the last time we played an Open here. Some different green complexes, different holes.
"The fifth hole I just played is completely different. I like it. A good driveable par four. A bit of a penalty if you got for it and miss.
"I don't know if the water is quite in play on the right but a lot of big deep bunkers guarding the green."
