McIlroy: Winning at St. Andrews is 'holy grail' of golf

Rory McIlroy does not take winning The Open at St. Andrews lightly. In fact, the 33-year-old says winning the championship at the historic location is the top of all golf achievements.

"I think it's the holy grail of our sport," McIlroy said on Tuesday, according to Kyle Porter of CBS. "Not a lot of people are going to get that opportunity to achieve that. ... It's one of the highest achievements that you can have in golf."

St. Andrews, often referred to as the "home of golf," is host to the 150th Open Championship this week - its first time hosting since 2015.

The Old Course first hosted the major in 1873. Since then, legends of the sport like Sam Snead, Jack Nicklaus, and Seve Ballesteros have seen their names engraved on the Claret Jug at the historic site.

Another Hall of Famer who has tapped in a winning putt at St. Andrews is Tiger Woods, who won on the Old Course first in 2000 to complete the career Grand Slam and then again in 2005. He won the Open for a third time in 2006, though not at St. Andrews.

Woods is in the field again at this year's Open Championship, which will be just his third official event on the TOUR schedule after his February 2021 car accident.

Despite Woods' lack of play this season and his injury, McIlroy said he still believes Woods has a chance this week at St. Andrews.

"The way the golf course is and the way the conditions are, I could certainly see it," McIlroy said, according to Golf Channel's Brentley Romine. "It's going to be a game of chess this week, and no one's been better at playing that sort of chess game on a golf course than Tiger over the last 20 years."

Woods will tee off at 2:59 p.m. local time on Thursday for the first round of The Open, while McIlroy will tee off at 9:58 a.m.