By LEWINE MAIR

Could this be the time when things come right for Rory McIlroy at St Andrews?

Though different ideas pop up on a regular basis as to why the Ulsterman has been coming close in recent majors without getting over the line, the explanation for his disappointing lot in his two Opens at the “home of golf” is pretty straightforward. More than anything, he’s been unlucky.

At the last time of asking, in 2015, many observers had fingers crossed that the then-defending champion would enjoy a thriller of a showdown with Jordan Spieth, the reigning Masters and U.S. Open champion.

Instead, the following post on McIlroy’s Instagram account brought news of an untimely injury: “Total rupture of left ATFL (ankle ligament) and associated joint capsule damage in a soccer kickabout.” He had to pull out of the Scottish Open and then from the Open itself before resuming golf in time for that year’s PGA Championship.

Many of his fans would have given a sad shake of the head and asked themselves, “What on earth was Rory doing playing football?” However, you would like to think that there were others who saw it as no bad thing that the then-26-year-old McIlroy was still enjoying the odd kickabout with friends.

In 2010, when he was 21 years of age, he played a blinder over the Old Course on the opening day as he began with a 9-under-par 63 which, quite literally, was the talk of the town. Demonstrating what Lawrence Donegan of The Guardian described as “a savant’s touch,” he played the final 10 holes in 8-under to take the first-round lead.

McIlroy’s fans poured forth the next day and kept their patience nicely intact as their man started with three straight pars. Yet they could sense that things were about to happen, and happen they did, if in a way they had hardly anticipated.

The sky was still more blue than black when storm clouds began to gather and gusts started to sweep across the links. The klaxon sounded, and with it came the advice that competitors could either stay put or sit tight in one of mini-buses, fleets of which were stationed at various intervals around the links.

... that was when the magic gave up on him.

McIlroy’s nearest fleet was adjacent to the fourth fairway where, unlike the stopping point at the far end of the course which boasted an assortment of eateries, the choice of pastimes did not extend beyond sitting in a bus or on the grass.

For a journalist, the end-of-course option was the better place in that every time the gusts took a rest, the players headed for the fish-and-chips van and started to regale everyone in the vicinity with tales of the believe-it-or-not.

A bemused Thomas Levet had knocked his approach to a foot at the par-4 10th when the admiring roars were interrupted as his ball took on a second lease of life and finally pulled up a good 20 feet from the flag. At much the same time, Glen Day hit a bunker shot at the short 11th that left him with a 10-footer which turned into a 20-footer. Levet ended up with a double bogey, Day with a bogey.

Ryuichi Oda from Japan spent the first part of his interlude enjoying a cigarette with friends from home, while Todd Hamilton, the 2004 champion at Troon, signed autographs for all and sundry, and explained how his overriding concern had been one of having a ball blow away after he had grounded his putter. (Today, he could have found an appropriate answer in Rule 9 of the latest edition of the Rules of Golf.)

Three-quarters of an hour after the suspension had started, players were told that the klaxon would soon be sounding for a return to action. At which point, it was time to head back to the fourth and see what would happen to McIlroy who, after what had been a wind-tossed drive, was planning on a 7-iron for his second.

As things turned out, he, Lucas Glover and Darren Clarke were in the throes of a few preparatory bends and stretches when it was the gusts rather than the players which started up again.

McIlroy sat down on the ground for a few minutes before being alerted anew to the fact that they were finally about to get cracking. When he jumped up and bounced his ball on the face of a wedge umpteen times, that keepy-uppy routine suggested that the magic was still there. But then came word of a third delay – and that was when the magic gave up on him.

His 7-iron missed the green by some distance. “It’s short and left,” said his father, Gerry McIlroy, to those of us who could not see for the crowd. That hole cost him the first of four consecutive 5s and, out in 40, he eventually wound up with an 80.

Long before the end of the week, McIlroy could see the funny side of one writer's observation as to how, in all the rounds he had played over the Old Course in both the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship and the Open, he had stuck with his intention of never scoring in the 70s.

After he had closed with a 69 and a 68 to share third, he had returned as many as nine rounds in the 60s, with the 10th that horror of an 80 put together on a second day when Louis Oosthuizen, the winner, had the weather on his side for a 67.

So, what can we expect from McIlroy at St Andrews this time around? Though “third time lucky” is a tired old cliché, it has to be a strong possibility.

Top: Rory McIlroy at the 2010 Open Championship