Rory McIlroy will look to continue being the thorn in the side of his frustrated golf rivals like Jason Day at The Open . The Northern Irishman is mounting his challenge for a sixth major triumph on home turf at Royal Portrush, while 2015 PGA Championship winner Day is also in contention for his second. With both nearing two decades as professional golfers, the pair know each other well. Day finished second when McIlroy triumphed at the 2011 US Open in one of four runner-up finishes at the majors for the Australian, who's been left frustrated by his rival on several occasions over the years. That includes at the Masters this year as McIlroy finally secured the career Grand Slam. Staring up the leaderboard ahead of the final day's play with seven shots between him and McIlroy, Day bemoaned: "[You] can't do anything. You want to go over there and break every club in his bag, but that's just not going to work. "He's clearly playing some good golf, so you've got to do the best job you can. I've been on the receiving end of a couple of those where he's run away with it a little bit, Congressional when I finished second there and he beat me by eight." Day conceding that even breaking McIlroy's clubs wouldn't slow him down spoke volumes about how his fellow golfers view him with an air of untouchability. Although it's not been smooth sailing for him since Augusta. McIlroy has failed to add to his three wins for the season, facing a tough spell of form that's taken some work to bounce back from. But he headed to Portrush off the back of consecutive top 10 finishes at the Travelers Championship and the Scottish Open. As the old saying goes, form is temporary, class is permanent, and Day's well aware of that. "I mean, he's the best player of our generation for sure," he asserted about McIlroy back in April. "He just makes things look so easy. You look at his score today, he was, what, 4-under-ish through three holes, and then kind of faulted and then all of a sudden he makes three on the trot. It's not easy out there. "It's very difficult out there. There's a little bit of wind. The wind is moving around a little bit. The greens are starting to firm up and they're getting a little bit quicker. "But he's explosive enough to be able to do that. There's not many guys on this planet that are able to do something like that. That's what's impressive about him. "Yeah, he's got two holes left, obviously, and we'll see where we're at at the end of the day and then try and focus on tomorrow and see how it goes."