Rory McIlroy's wild driver mars homecoming opening Open Championship round
The Open Championship is at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland for the second time since 1951. In 2019, Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy shot an opening round 79 and missed the cut. With a second chance in his home country, the Masters champion played a much better round. But McIlroy's driver abandoned him again at The Open Championship, leading to a grizzly stat through day 1.
McIlroy hit just two fairways off the tee, but still shot one-under 70 on the day. A nine-shot improvement from six years ago is not the only positive the Grand Slam winner can take away. He was solid on the greens, finishing 30th in strokes-gained putting at +1.46. But for McIlroy to win, he needs to fix his driver.
According to The Open Championship's website, McIlroy was -1.01 in strokes gained driving on the round. On the PGA Tour, he averages 0.63 strokes gained off the tee per round. That 1.64 shot difference could be the difference between him winning and losing the Claret Jug on Sunday. But if he gets his superpower back for the Friday round, the hometown kid could finally win one for Northern Ireland.
Despite the driving woes, McIlroy was three under through ten holes. The lead was four under at the time, so the Northern Ireland flag was high up on the board. But consecutive bogeys on 11 and 12 changed the trajectory of his round. After another bogey on 14, he was able to birdie 17 after a poor drive to finish one under.
McIlroy played with Justin Thomas and Tommy Fleetwood on Thursday, and will again on Friday. They start their second round at 5:09 a.m. Eastern, all looking to make the cut. McIlroy and Thomas are fairly safe, as the American shot one over. But Fleetwood struggled, with a 72 to finish two over. Can all three make the cut on Friday?
Related: Bryson DeChambeau's Round 1 Open Championship debacle in rare territory
Related: Jon Rahm makes admission after freaking out at Open Championship fan
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