Open glory for Rory McIlroy

Rory McIlroy kisses the Claret Jug after winning the British Open Championship at the Royal Liverpool Golf Club in Hoylake. — Reuters

Rory McIlroy joined the elite list of golfers to have won three of the four major titles at Hoylake on Sunday, but he had to battle all the way against Sergio Garcia and Rickie Fowler before bagging his first British Open title.

At 25, McIlroy joined legends Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus as the only players to have achieved that feat by the time they were 25.

And he becomes the second most successful British golfer of the modern era behind the six major titles won by Nick Faldo.

The Irishman closed with a 71 for a 17-under par total of 271, two strokes clear of Garcia who closed with a 66 and Fowler with a 67.

A further two strokes back came American Jim Furyk with a final round of 65. Australians Adam Scott (66) and Marc Leishman (65) were on 12 under.

It was a magnificent wire-to-wire win from McIlroy, who is just the seventh player in Open history to so, but the day was not without its share of drama.

Starting with a whopping six-stroke lead, McIlroy confidently birdied the first, but back-to-back bogeys at five and six saw his lead halved as Garcia emerged from the chasing pack.

But he birdied the 10th to keep his challengers at arm’s length and then stood firm down the back nine against Garcia and a late push by Fowler. His third major title follows eight stroke triumphs in the 2011 US Open and the 2012 US PGA Championship.

Such was the majesty of McIlroy’s three first rounds of 66, 66 and 68 at Royal Liverpool that few believed he was in any danger of repeating his collapse at the 2011 Masters when he led by four strokes going into the final round only to shoot 80.

And despite some early movement from such as Robert Karlsson, Marc Leishman and Victor Dubuisson, the rest of the field were too far behind to be able to apply any real pressure on the leader.

But suddenly it changed after McIlroy’s back-to-back bogeys, followed shortly after by an eagle from Garcia at the 10th. The lead was back down to two and the Spaniard had a sniff of possibly finally winning a major title at the age of 34 after a long run of near misses.