McIlroy digs deep but issues remain in Houston

Those out following Rory McIlroy over the front nine on the opening day of the Shell Houston Open could very well have joined in chorus declaring: “Houston, we have a problem!”

But after slumping to three over par over his outward half McIlroy managed to fix the problem and superbly wipe out the bogeys in the first four holes of his homeward nine before eventually signing for a one-over-par 73.

It left McIlroy nine shots behind American leader DA Points, who resurrected a putter he had ‘borrowed’ from his mother when he was 12 and used it on just 23 occasions during his round of 64.