Rory McIlroy mixed early success with late struggles in Thursday’s opening round of the Amgen Irish Open, carding a 1-under 71 at The K Club.
McIlroy sits five shots behind early leader Nacho Elvira after a round that showed promise but faded down the stretch with consecutive bogeys. Despite the late hiccups, he’s maintaining a positive outlook.
“Actually pretty encouraged how I played. Just didn’t score as well as I wanted to,” McIlroy said. “Game feels pretty good. Yeah, as I said, off the tee was good. Was sort of a continuation of what I saw at East Lake a couple weeks ago. Just a matter of being more efficient with the scoring.”
Playing on familiar territory where he claimed his only Irish Open title in 2016, McIlroy gave the home crowd plenty to cheer about early. He birdied the 11th and 13th holes to start strong, then added birdies at the par-5 16th and 18th to make the turn at 3-under.
The back nine proved more challenging. After trading a bogey at the second with a birdie at the fourth, McIlroy’s round unraveled with back-to-back bogeys at seven and eight. He narrowly missed an 11-foot birdie opportunity on his final hole that would’ve softened the late stumble.
“Ball striking-wise I thought I was pretty good today. Then, yeah, around the greens for the most part I was good,” McIlroy explained. “I missed a couple mid-range putts there at the end of the round to save par and that one at the last for birdie, but felt like I hit decent putts and just hitting edges.”
Shane Lowry, playing one group ahead of McIlroy, posted a solid 3-under 69 with four birdies against a single bogey. Lowry was particularly pleased with his driving performance.
“It’s a new driver, too, so very, very happy with myself,” Lowry said. “Yeah, honestly I’ve been struggling to find the driver that I love this year, and — yeah, that was good today.”
Brooks Koepka, making his Irish Open debut, matched McIlroy’s 71.
At the other end of the leaderboard, last week’s Omega European Masters champion Thriston Lawrence struggled mightily, shooting 81 to sit last among the early wave of players.
