McIlroy Rues ‘Dreadful’ Open Start

Rory McIlroy says his performance on day one “added up to a pretty dreadful score” after he signed for an eight-over-par 79.

Playing in front of a packed home crowd at Northern Ireland’s Royal Portrush, world number three McIlroy was hoping to get off to a fast start but he instead struck his opening tee shot out of bounds to the shock of the gantry.

Hitting a second from the first tee, the 30-year-old ended up making a quadruple-bogey eight before dropping another shot at the par-three third, already leaving him with huge work to do.

Birdies on holes seven and nine brought the Holywood-born star back slightly, but a double-bogey at the 17th and a triple-bogey seven on the last all-but ended his hopes of a fifth major title.

Speaking to Sky Sports after his round, McIlroy admitted he was extremely poor on the day and was bitterly disappointed. “It’s just one of those days,” he said.

“I didn’t hit it well enough, I didn’t hit it in the right positions and put myself behind the eight-ball from the start.

“I thought if I could have got home in two over for the day I would’ve still been in the tournament, but the finish sort of derailed that.

It was a tough day, a rough start and a rough finish and it added up to a pretty dreadful score.”