It would hardly have been unreasonable to have fancied Rory McIlroy’s chances at the 2014 Open Championship, for he entered play with nine top 10s in calendar 2014, incluing the BMW triumph.  But it was clear that as the Open returned to one of England’s most historic clubs for the first time since 2006, the competition would be fierce, for top-10 players like Adam Scott, Henrik Stenson, Justin Rose and Sergio Garcia were all arriving in top form, and there was no shortage of additional world-class players nipping closely at their heels.  And then, of course, there was Tiger Woods, rebounding – perhaps a few moments too soon – from spring back surgery, but seemingly physically fit, and returning to the place of his last British Open triumph eight years earlier.  Woods, of course, would briefly tease with a very solid Thursday 69 before collapsing to a Friday 77, only to be heard from thereafter as a marquee filler for the early hours of ESPN’s wall-to-wall weekend coverage, and ultimately finishing an inglorious 69th.  McIlroy, on the other hand, sent a message bright and early on Thursday, carding a bogey-free 66 in ideal morning conditions to grab a one-shot lead over Italian Matteo Manassero, with a group of seven players – including Scott, Garcia and Jim Furyk – sitting two back.  Among the biggest names, Stenson and Rose settled for even par 72s, Rickie Fowler and Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama posted 69s, and defending champion Phil Mickelson continued a disappointing season with an afternoon 74.  The McIlroy lead managed to open another rather offbeat storyline: whether he would be able to avoid stumbling badly on Friday, an odd malady that had recently submarined his chances at The Masters (77), Wells Fargo (76), Memorial (78 – after leading with 63) and the Scottish Open (78 - after leading with 64).  It was a bizarre hex indeed, and one which perhaps seemed unbeatable when he opened Friday with a bogey at the par-4 1st.  But in true championship form, Rory stopped the bleeding forthwith and wet on to card seven birdies to record his second consecutive 66, good enough to move four shots clear of long-hitting Dusting Johnson (65) and six ahead of a blue-chip sixsome composed of Garcia (70), Fowler (69), Francesco Molinari (70), Louis Oosthuizen (68), Charl Schwartzel (67) and Ryan Moore (68).  Also notable was 64-year-old Tom Watson, who made the cut on the number to extend his own record as the oldest man to play on the weekend at a Major.  If there was a defining day to this championship, it was Saturday – a day in which the R&A set a precedent by knuckling under to ominous weather forecasts (which largely failed to pan out) and sent the field off early, off both tees, and in threesomes.  McIlroy, for his part, seemed like a man trying to get himself to Sunday as quickly as possible, once again opening with a bogey (which allowed Johnson, who birdied the 1st, to move within two), then plodding around in eevn par figures through 13 holes.  Though he was hardly playing badly, his relative stagnation left the door open to his pursuers and while Johnson bogeyed holes 7-9 to slip a bit, Fowler made an impressive move, posting seven birdies over his first 12 holes and actually drawing even.  It was then that McIlroy put his indelible stamp on the Open, for as Fowler played his final five holes in two over par, Rory proceded to play his in four under, spearheaded by overpowering eagles at both the 577-yard 16th and the 551-yard 18th – the only eagles recorded on either hole all day.  Thus off these spectacular fireworks, McIlroy went into a Sunday with a six-shot lead which would indeed prove insurmountable, though not before there were a few moments of at least marginal interest.  Fowler, for his part, initially played solid, steady golf, logging two birdies over his first 10 holes – not quite a full-fledged charge as McIlroy recovered from minor stumbles at the 5th and 6th to play the same stretch in one under.  Instead the charge came from 34-year-old Sergio Garcia, who began the day seven back before turning in three-under-par 32, then eagling the par-5 10th to pull within three.  A McIlroy bogey at the 13th briefly narrowed the lead to one but moments later, Garcia left his second in a greenside bunker at the 161-yard 16th and a bit of breathing room was restored. Garcia made obligatory birdies at both the 16th and 18th (numbers matched by Fowler, who also birdied the 15th) but when McIlroy carded his own four at the 16th, then got deftly up-and-down from right of the green at the 458-yard 17th, there was little left for him to do but record a safe par at the last to win by two.  For Garcia, now four times a Major bridesmaid, his impressive overall performance demonstrated a more focused and measured player on the very biggest of stages.  Off much work with swing coach Butch Harmon, Fowler (who logged his third top-5 Major finish of 2014) also appeared to raise his stock significantly going forward.  But in the end, the glory was reserved primarily for McIlroy, who joined Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods as the only men to claim three legs of the career Grand Slam by age 25, and once again demonstrated to the golfing world that he is both a player of transcendent skill and a man very much at home in the idol’s limelight.