RORY McIlroy admits it is hard to argue with being rated a 20/1 chance to win the Open Championship, but believes he can defy the odds and regain the Claret Jug at Royal Birkdale.

McIlroy comes into the third major championship of the season on the back of three missed cuts in his last four events, including back-to-back early exits from the Irish Open – where he was defending champion – and last week’s Scottish Open.

The last player to miss consecutive cuts immediately before winning a major was American Webb Simpson, who claimed the 2012 US Open at Olympic Club, while Louis Oosthuizen was the most recent to do so in the Open in 2010.

And although McIlroy concedes he sounds like a “broken record” when he claims to be close to regaining top form when results suggest otherwise, he could not help raising an eyebrow when told about his pre-tournament odds.

“Good time to back me, I think,” McIlroy said with a smile. “If I was a betting company and I saw my form over the past few weeks you would say, yeah, that’s probably a fair enough price.

“But again, all it takes is one week for those odds to go back to, I don’t know, 7/1, 8/1 at Quail Hollow (for next month’s US PGA Championship). So as I say, good week to back me.”

McIlroy has twice been sidelined this season with a rib injury suffered during extensive equipment testing over the winter, meaning he has played just 10 events despite the late addition of the Scottish Open to his schedule.

The Northern Irishman’s last appearance in the event was back in 2014 and the following week he led from start to finish to win the Open at Hoylake - around 30 miles away from Birkdale – before recording victories in the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and US PGA in consecutive starts.

Even McIlroy himself got caught up with expectations of a period of Tiger Woods-style dominance, but he has not truly threatened to win a major since, despite five top-10 finishes.

“I have been able to play golf in stretches that, if I continued that type of golf for six, seven, eight years, I would be able to win a lot more,” he added.

“But golf is so fluid and so you’re always trying to evolve. It’s almost like life, there’s ups and downs, and it’s never sort of that linear sort of direction.

“I wish I was here being the No 1 player in the world and won a couple more majors and whatever but I haven’t. But I’m working on it. I’m trying to get back there and I’m doing everything I can. And hopefully the start of that crest of a wave happens this week.”

McIlroy has banned himself from social media following his row with former US PGA champion Steve Elkington after missing the cut in the US Open at Erin Hills.

Elkington wrote on Twitter: ‘’Rory is so bored playiing golf...without Tiger [Woods] the threshold is prolly 4 majors with 100mill in bank.’’ McIlroy swiftly responded with: ‘’More like 200mil... not bad for a ‘’bored’’ 28 year old... plenty more where that came from’’ and posted a screenshot of his Wikipedia entry which lists some of his achievements, but subsequently admitted he regretted replying.

“I want to win this week, I don’t need to win,” added McIlroy.