There’s all kinds of pressure in sports. The kind that comes from big expectations. The kind that comes from rare opportunities and from grand dreams. Then there’s the external kind, the crippling kind that comes from the hopes and dreams and wants of others. Maybe you know some of them. Maybe you don’t.
Rory McIlroy has faced both kinds of pressure. He conquered the former at Augusta National in April. As my colleague James Colgan noted, he crumpled under the latter during the 2019 Open Championship in front of his home crowd in Northern Ireland. It’s a pressure — to perform for a region or country — that has made countless individuals and teams wilt.
“As much as I came here at the start of the week saying I wanted to do it for me, you know, by the end of the round there today I was doing it just as much for them as I was for me,” McIlroy said after his cut-line charge came up short at the 2019 Open Championship at Royal Portrush. “I wanted to be here for the weekend. Selfishly, I wanted to feel that support for two more days. To play in front of those crowds today and to feel that momentum and really dig in, it’s going to be a tough one to get over.”
It’s a pressure that can overwhelm because you want it not just for yourself, but you feel how much it would mean to millions you’ve never met. It’s a pressure British athletes know well.
At the 2012 Wimbledon final, Andy Murray became overcome with emotion after losing to Roger Federer. Murray, who was trying to become the first male tennis player from the U.K. to win a grand slam title since 1936, broke down in his post-match speech, with the importance of his near-miss still weighing on him. After congratulating Federer and thanking his family and team, Murray turned to the Wimbledon crowd that had been trying to will him to history for two weeks.
“Everybody always talks about the pressure of playing at Wimbeldon,” Murray said through tears. “How tough it is. But it’s not the people watching. They make it so much easier to play. The support has been incredible.”
When Murray finally broke through a few months later at the 2012 U.S. Open, he opened up on the pressure of trying to win for everyone in the U.K. and how he felt it in the most consequential moment of his career to date.
“You try not to think about it much when you’re playing,” Murray said after breaking the drought. “But like I said, when I was serving for the match, it’s something that, you know, I realised how important that moment was, and, you know, for British tennis or British sport.”
Wayne Rooney carried the weight of English soccer’s World Cup hopes for almost two decades. As England’s biggest soccer star, Rooney knew that whether or not the Three Lions brought home their first World Cup title since 1966 would fall on his shoulders.
“I’d go into tournaments thinking if England are to win this tournament it’s because I’ve won them it,” Rooney said in a documentary about his career.
“That was a lot of pressure for me to deal with,” Rooney said. “I tried to hide it a lot throughout the years and tried to take that pressure off my teammates, almost to not show that, but deep down, that’s what was always in my head. “I was always thinking, so I think a lot of the times you see mistakes on the pitch or like a red card, whatever, bad performance, that’s probably from me just holding everything in and trying to do too much at times.”
That brings us to Matt Fitzpatrick, who, after opening the 2025 Open Championship at Royal Portrush with rounds of 67 and 66, will enter the weekend one shot back of World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, looking to become the first Englishman to win the Open Championship since Nick Faldo in 1992.
Fitzpatrick is already a major champion. He is buoyed by a resurgent game and plans to enter the cauldron this weekend in Northern Ireland feeling free. The pressure to win for your country, especially when you know how much it would mean for everyone you share a common bond with, can suffocate. But the pressure, he contends, is on the other guy.
“I wouldn’t say I necessarily feel as much pressure,” Fitzpatrick said on Friday after the second round. “The pressure, [Scheffler’s] going to have the expectation to go out and dominate. He’s an exceptional player. He’s World No. 1, and we’re seeing Tiger-like stuff. I think the pressure is for him to win the golf tournament. For me obviously I hope I’m going to have some more home support than him, but it’s an exciting position for me to be in given where I was earlier this year.”
Since Faldo lifted the Claret Jug in 1992, a number of talented English golfers have made a run at the major that is closest to their heart. Lee Westwood, Justin Rose, Ian Poulter, Paul Casey and Tommy Fleetwood have all come up short. Faldo also had a few near-misses after his 1992 victory.
Thirty-three years have passed since an English golfer has been Champion Golfer of the Year.
Fitzpatrick will carry that weight into the weekend along the coast of Northern Ireland, even if he doesn’t feel it yet.
“No, not in the slightest,” Fitzpatrick said when asked if he feels added weight to try and break England’s drought.
We’ve got 36 holes to find out if that’s true.
