Rory McIlroy's latest attempt to end his decade-long major drought got off to a disastrous start today, with the Holywood native carding a seven-over round of 78 to kick off The Open at Royal Troon.
McIlroy came into the year's final major in decent form, having played some impressive golf at last week's Scottish Open. Of course, that was his first competitive appearance since his dramatic collapse at the US Open last month.
It seems unlikely that he will be in a position to win the tournament this week. The 35-year old played some incredibly poor golf, especially when it came to his approach shots towards the green. Far too often he found himself scrambling to make par after missing the putting surface.
Having started the round relatively well, Rory McIlroy began to unravel after this tee shot led to a double-bogey at the par-three eighth.
Rory McIlroy finds bunker twice to makes mess of Postage Stamp 😲 pic.twitter.com/I1KXGEf22L
— Sky Sports Golf (@SkySportsGolf) July 18, 2024
While it was not a day of low scoring, this round now leaves him in danger of missing the cut.
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Rory McIlroy responds to disastrous first round at The Open
Rory McIlroy will be battling to make the cut during tomorrow's second round, where he will need a much better performance than he produced today if he is to make the weekend.
The conditions during the opening round were very difficult, something he believes was his undoing.
Speaking to Sky Sports, McIlroy was in an honest mood when admitting that his failure to adapt to the conditions was his downfall during the first round of The Open.
I felt okay. I've come in here playing really well, I played well at The Renaissance (Scottish Open) last week.
I think if anything it was more that the conditions got the better of me. Those crosswinds going out were tough, I missed the green at the postage stamp there and left it in the bunker and made a five.
Once we turned onto that back nine the left-to-right winds, I was sort of struggling to hold the ball on that wind there. That kind of got me...
It was definitely tricky, it was difficult. You plan, play your practice rounds and try and come up with a strategy that you think is going to get you around the golf course.
When the wind is like that, other options present themselves and you start to second-guess yourself a little bit. Conditions were tough on that back nine and I just didn't do a good enough job to adapt to them today...
The conditions are going to be pretty similar again tomorrow, so I have to do a better job in those conditions.
I need to go out there and play better and try to shoot something under-par. At least be here for the weekend, if not try and put myself up the leaderboard a bit more and feel like I have half a chance.
Rory McIlroy is highly unlikely to be in contention to win The Open this weekend, although he will want to avoid the embarrassment of missing the cut.
It looks as though his search for a fifth major is about to enter an 11th year.
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