TROON, Scotland — It was a disaster start for Rory McIlroy at the Open Championship on Thursday.
“I have to do a better job in those conditions,” McIlroy said after his round. “And I need to go out there and play better and try to shoot something under-par and at least be here for the weekend, if not try to put myself up the leaderboard a bit more and feel like I have half a chance.”
In his first major championship start since letting the U.S. Open trophy slip through his fingers at Pinehurst, McIlroy shot a seven-over par 78 that saw him make eight bogeys against just a single birdie, which came at the second hole.
“It felt OK. I’ve come in here playing really well,” McIlroy said. “I think, if anything, it was more like the conditions got the better of me, those cross-winds.”
The golf world was waiting to see how the Northern Irish star would respond this week. McIlroy pointed to the changing winds as the main reason for his opening round struggles, as the breeze changed completely from the practice rounds to Thursday’s championship.
Conditions at Royal Troon also stiffened as Thursday afternoon wore on with wind and rain increasing after a rather gentle start to the day.
“It was difficult,” he said. “Yeah, you plan, you play your practice rounds and you try to come up with a strategy that you think is going to get you around the golf course. Then when the wind is like that, other options present themselves, and you start to second guess yourself a little bit.”
McIlroy has spent the past couple of years in the glaring spotlight for a number of reasons.
First, it was for his staunch defence of the PGA Tour in the face of the threat from LIV Golf; then it was for the sudden softening of his stance as he appeared to come around on the rival league after Jon Rahm joined last December.
Last month, he was back in the news after splitting from his wife Erica Stoll and then, at the U.S. Open, the news was of the couple’s reconciliation.
That is, until he missed two short putts and lost his chance to end a decade-long major-less drought.
It has been an up-and-down year for the 35-year-old golfer and, so far, it’s not looking up this week at Royal Troon.