IT’S FAIR to say Rory McIlroy looks up to Tiger Woods. The next step is to emulate him. Already, the 20-year-old Ulsterman’s swing bears an uncanny resemblance to that of the world number one. Now, he has taken possession of a new dog – a Labradoodle, a cross between a Labrador and a standard poodle – which just happens to be the same breed Woods owns.

“I was going to call him Tiger, but decided I couldn’t really . . . so we decided to name him Theo,” remarked McIlroy yesterday, ahead of the US Open at Bethpage where, come Sunday, it would please him no end if he were to figure in the final pairing with Woods.

McIlroy is focused on taking yet another step on a journey that continues to take him to new places. This is his first appearance in the US Open, and he is fully aware the last first-timer to win the championship was Francis Ouimet back in 1913. But there is no fear about the prospect of taking on Woods on a course where he won this title in 2002.

Does he feel ready to take on Woods? “Um, if he plays the way he did the last round at the Memorial, then no . . . But I can’t control what he does or what anyone else in the field does. I just have to go out and play my golf. If it’s not good enough, it’s not good enough.

“Guys don’t go into majors thinking ‘I have to do this to beat Tiger’, or ‘I have to do that to beat Tiger’. They go in and they concentrate on their own games. If their own game at the end of the day isn’t good enough, then that’s the way it goes.”

McIlroy, though, likes what he has seen of Bethpage Black. It’s a long course, with the recent rain making it play even longer. With that in mind, he went into the Titleist trailer on Monday evening – after his practice round was cut short by a thunderstorm – and got them to make him a three-iron, a club he normally doesn’t carry in his bag. He is likely to replace one of his gap wedges with the club.

“If it stays this soft, you’ll be able to bomb it off the tee . . . but I feel as if I’m driving the ball really, really well, and you need to do that for a US Open.

“Ball-striking, from tee to green, is probably the strongest part of my game. If I’m hitting the ball well, I should be able to hit 10 or 12 fairways and hit 13 or 14 greens. I’ll give myself a few chances for birdies.”

McIlroy – with six top-five finishes on the European Tour this season, including a maiden win in the Dubai Desert Classic – has no worries about his form. Of his last outing on tour two weeks ago, in the European Open, he observed it as “one that got away”.

However, two weeks at home, working hard with coach Michael Bannon, and taking possession of that Labradoodle – which, incidentally, prompted him to finally get a barber’s scissors to his hair so he wouldn’t be compared to the dog, have left McIlroy in expectant mood.

“I could say to myself a top-20 finish here would be great, but I don’t want to just finish in the top-20. I want to do better than that. It’s all new for me still, so I don’t quite know what to expect when Thursday comes or what way the golf course will be set up. But if I can go out and play the way I know I can, I know I’m able to shoot under par on this golf course.”

And, now that he has the same class of dog as Tiger, is there anything else he’d like?

“Fourteen majors!” he replies.

Could it start here?