Rory McIlroy’s Oakley outfits for The Open at Royal St George’s

With Rorymania now in full swing, all eyes will be on the 22-year-old Northern Irishman to see how he copes with going in as favourite for The Open Championship at Royal St George’s next month.

Tens of thousands will be following McIlroy round the Links with millions more watching him on TV around the globe.

Today’s Golfer caught up with the new US Open champion at an event with clothing sponsors Oakley this week and we got a sneek peek at what he will be wearing over all four days at Sandwich with the eyes of the world upon him.

He has chosen a striking blue as his outfit for the final day because he wants to stand out from the crowd and to disassociate himself from some other traditional final day colours such as red famously worn by Tiger Woods.

Speaking about his relationship with Oakley, McIlroy said: “When we started to speak to Oakley in the middle of last year I was very keen to do something because I feel as if Oakley’s brand and their style fits my sort of relaxed style on and off the golf course.

“Especially for young guys if you look good on the golf course you feel good and obviously that’s going to help you play better as well. All these little things add up to help you get to where you want to be in the game.

“Everyone is different, some people like to wear clothes that are quite loose, others like to wear clothes that are quite tight. The thing for me, especially with Oakley, is the movement and being able to swing freely with no restrictions.

“Even things like the pants [trousers] that I wear, the Take pants, they are so stretchy they are comfortable you don’t have to worry about rolling trousers up to bend down to read putts or anything like that. Just having that freedom of movement on the golf course means you are not thinking about anything else other than hitting the golf ball.

“I like bright colours. I’m not so big into patterns but I like bright colours and something that makes you stand out. Not in your face, quite subtle but that sets you apart from the rest of the crowd.

“Especially for the Majors we go through a script and blue was the overall colour scheme for the US Open and at the Masters it was black and white with a touch of green here and there and for the Open it will be similar for all four days. I think it is nice to go for a certain theme during the week and stick to it.”

Oakley’s Raphael Peck added: “Blue is important for us because we felt like we needed to separate from some of the other traditional winning colours on a Sunday, one of which has been red.

“We deliberately decided on blue being a colour which Rory could be identified through. We go through an 18-month colour and trend process relative to where the colur trends are going and when Rory came in we spent some time going through everything with him.

“We show Rory our suggested colour palette and trends and Rory then actually picks the colours he likes and feels comfortable in.

“Rory says yes and no to a lot of the stuff, in fact last week I put Rory in quite a loud pair of slacks and his quip to me was he would really have to be winning to wear something that loud and that he couldn’t go out and shoot a 75.”

For more information on Oakley apparel and eyewear visit www.oakley.com