Erin Hills, Wisconsin ….

World No. 2 Rory McIlroy confirmed he will contest next month’s Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open at Dundonald Links.

The question came right out of the blue from the Daily Record’s Euan McLaren and certainly caught European Tour media officials off guard, and with McIlroy afterwards apologising for letting slip the news.

Rory McIlroy and the last time he contested a Scottish Open and in 2014 at Royal Aberdeen: Picture Stuart Adams www.golftourimages.com:

“Sorry, Gibbo”, he said smiling to the Tour’s Michael Gibbons realising he had let the proverbial cat out of the bag in indicating he would be competing.

And the news comes after we here at www.golfbytourmiss.com  broke the news in recent weeks that Adam Scott, Henrik Stenson, Matt Kuchar and also Rickie Fowler will be competing in the $US 7m event.

It will be the first appearance in the event for McIlroy since he played at Royal Aberdeen in 2014 while an ankle injury ruled him out two years ago at Gullane.

“I’m going to play Scottish, so I’m going to play Irish, Scottish and The Open,” he said.

“Which is great, great links round.

“And then contemplating a couple — another one in the summer.

“But we’ll see how it goes I guess. If I’m able to knock off a couple of big ones, that schedule changes a little bit, but I’m definitely going to play Scottish”.

And Euan jumped in with a follow up question asking McIlroy what he new about Dundonald Links.

“I don’t know much about Dundonald. I know it’s close to Troon,” he said.

“That’s really about it. I know I can drive there. Have to get the boat from Larne to Troon will be fine.”

The news of McIlroy competing at Dundonald will certainly see a big rise in ticket sales to the event.