The Scottish Open has become one of the big events on the golf schedule ever since it became a partner event between the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour, as the best players from both tours come together for a chance to play some links golf in preparation for the Open Championship a week later.

McIlroy enters this tournament more refreshed.

Rory McIlroy tidies up for a birdie and moves back to level par.

"It was a scrappy start," he summed it up.

Cheering loudest at McIlroy’s Augusta triumph would have been anyone with a stake in Northern Ireland’s stutteringly resurgent tourism industry.