The man in yellow. Not your typical power colour to be sure, yet Rory McIlroy – in his sartorial elegance – cut quite the dash as he navigated his way out and back on the Old Course, signing for a six-under-par 66 that again demonstrated he has cast aside the opening round demons that had plagued him in recent years.
McIlroy bookended his impressive round on the rock-hard terrain with birdies, although the one on the first and the last on the 18th could hardly have been more different. Those gathered in the grandstand behind the first roared their approval when he rolled in a 55-footer for a birdie, while the acclaim afforded him on the closing green was after an elementary two-putt for birdie after finding the putting surface off the tee.
A raised hand and broad smile from McIlroy told its own story of a good day’s work at the office, his final task to climb the footbridge to the recorder’s office to scribble his signature to the scorecard that affirmed another fast start.
A stark statistic is relevant in how he has turned those first-day blues around. Between 2015 and 2021, McIlroy was a combined 34 over par in opening rounds. This year, he is 12 under (73 at the Masters, 65 at the US PGA, 66 at the US Open and, now, 66 at the Open).
“It’s another good start at a Major, three in a row for me now. I’m looking forward to the next few days,” said McIlroy, before explaining how he has managed to change things around to make strong starts.
“I think I’ve played with a little more freedom because I can, because I’m in more control of my swing and my game. And I think it sort of goes hand in hand. I have confidence and I can go out and play free and not be maybe as timid and tight starting off … it’s golf being golf in a way, but at the same time I’m in a better place with my game to go out there and give a better account of myself.”
For the most part, McIlroy was very much in control of matters, even if he acknowledged it was “the fiddliest” golf course he’d ever experienced in the championship. “And fiddly hasn’t really been my forte over the years, but I’m hopefully going to make it my forte this week,” he added.
McIlroy’s round of seven birdies, including a hat-trick in a hot streak from the fifth, and one bogey – which came at the 13th where he his approach ran around the rim of a greenside bunker and eventually came to rest in front of the trap from where his chip then kicked off and onwards like a scalded cat to the far side of green – was a comfortable one in spite of the slow play (all of five hours 40 minutes for his round) and of the firm conditions that allowed for golf balls to have a mind of their own.
That play of the 13th was probably the only time he was out of position. Otherwise, on the occasions where a potential speed bump was put in his way, most notably on the 17th where he got a poor lie, he made the smart play in ensuring his score would be nothing worse than a par.
“It’s in a lie where I don’t feel like I can get the leading edge of a lob wedge underneath the ball to get a good enough strike on it. So I chipped a little gap wedge down there, and I pulled it. But I played the right shot so that if I did miss it, it wasn’t in too bad of a spot, but I could then get it up-and-down from.
“And that’s what I’m talking about, the trickiness. I only had 85 yards to the front of the green on 17, and I knew four was going to be a good score. I think it’s accepting that sometimes and not being overly aggressive, even when you put yourself in some of these positions. I think that’s important,” he explained.
