McIlroy battles against driver issues but puts himself in the mix at Open
In spite of one of the worst off-the-tee performances of his major career, McIlroy lies just three shots off the lead at the end of the first day's play. The lead is shared by Jakub Olesen, Haotong Li, Matt Fitzpatrick, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, and Harris English.
Having infamously gone out of bounds with his first tee shot during the 2019 Open at Portrush, McIlroy again sent his first shot down the left, though this time it bounced into the rough and remained in play. He made bogey on the first, but bounced back with a birdie on the par-five second.
McIlroy struggled off the tee all day, battling a consistent left miss and hitting just none of his first five fairways and just two of 14 overall. It was his joint-moist inaccurate driving round in his major career, and he ranked second-last among the field for driving accuracy.
Some majestic irons and steely putts on slow greens kept him in the mix, however, with birdies on five, seven and 10 moving him to within one shot of the lead. From there, however, he began leaking oil, hooking his tee shot into thick rough on 11 and though he managed to scramble himself into position to save a par on the toughest hole on the course, he missed his putt from 11 feet. More galling was a three-putt bogey on the par-five 12th. He dropped another shot on 14 to fall back to even par.
He missed fairways on 15 and 17, though left the latter within 12 feet thanks to an approach that made more intelligent use of the contours around the green. McIlroy poured in his fifth birdie of the day to get back under par. He left a birdie putt just shy of the hole on the last to close with an under-par round of 70.
'It was good. I had it going three-under through 10 and let a few slip there around the middle of the round', said McIlroy. 'I steadied the ship well, played the last four at one-under, and it was nice to shoot under par.
'I felt like, once we turned for home – like played 10 and turned back and played 11 – the wind picked up a little bit, and it just became that little bit more difficult.
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'It was a tough enough day, especially either chopping out of the rough or out of the fairway bunkers most of the time. So to shoot under par was a good effort.
'I'm surprised four-under is leading. I thought someone might have gone out there and shot six or seven today. Only three back with 54 holes to go, I'm really happy with where I am.'
McIlroy was surrounded by enormous galleries everywhere he went, and said with some understatement that he dealt with their attendant expectation better than he did in 2019.
'Look, I feel the support of an entire country out there, which is a wonderful position to be in, but at the same time, you don't want to let them down. So there's that little bit of added pressure.
'I felt like I dealt with it really well today. Certainly dealt with it better than I did six years ago. I was just happy to get off to a good start and get myself into the tournament.'
Elsewhere, Bryson DeChambeau struggled with the links' challenge, carding his worst opening round at a major championship with a seven-over round of 78, leaving him in a major battle to make the cut.
DeChambeau's playing partners fared better, with Justin Rose battling to a bogey-free, two-under round of 69, while Robert MacIntyre shot even-par.
Elsewhere among the late wave, Jordan Spieth birdied two of his final four holes to claw his way back to two-over, which was also posted by his playing partners Viktor Hovland and Ludvig Aberg.
Tommy Fleetwood, playing alongside McIlroy and the runner-up at Portrush in 2019, has a lot of work to do to win a first major of his career this week, posting two-over.
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Irish Independent
2 hours ago
- Irish Independent
Scottie Scheffler insists he was unaware of Rory McIlroy's charge as he took command of The Open at Portrush
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The Irish Sun
4 hours ago
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The 42
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- The 42
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