Tough first day for McIlory and Lowry as both struggled at the US Open

It was a hard day at the office for both Shane Lowry and Rory McIlroy as the friends are paired together for round two.

IRISH PAIRING: Friends Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry were paired together for the opening two days of the US Open and will need to lean on each other following a tough first round. Pic: Patrick Smith/Getty Images

In pairing Rory McIlroy with Shane Lowry for the first two days of the US Open, many felt organisers had done the Irish duo a favour. In an unexpected way, they did.

The close friends were at least able to commiserate with one another in the closest quarters as Oakmont showed its teeth early to bite both hard as their opening rounds ran away from them in Pittsburgh on Thursday.

While Lowry mostly toiled throughout, McIlroy had made the turn on 2-under, one of just a handful of the morning starters in the red. But things darkened fast as four bogeys and a double bogey on the 8th, his penultimate hole, led McIlroy to a 4-over 74, his worst opening-round score at a US Open for seven years.

Alongside him, Lowry was in even worse shape. A mid-round stunner of a slam dunk eagle from way downtown proved to be a lone highlight of a round that featured five bogeys and three double-bogeys for Lowry, who slumped to a 79, with just five players below him on the leaderboard as the afternoon wave teed off with the pace of play torturously slow.

The third hole at Oakmont has never given up an eagle 2 in U.S. Open history... until now! 🦅

Well played, @ShaneLowryGolf! pic.twitter.com/kk9VlmyevX

— U.S. Open (@usopengolf) June 12, 2025

American JJ Spaun got out early and set his own pace with a faultless 4-under 66, going bogey-free at a course that proved to be more punishing as the day went on.

Among the earlier starters at the year’s third major, Lowry and McIlroy teed off on the 10th and felt their way into things with steady opening pars.

So much of McIlroy’s build-up had been dominated by his driving woes. On his second hole he proved he didn’t need the big club to get going as he went fairway wood off the tee and then on the green got a great read from playing partner Justin Rose to drain his first birdie of the week.

The feel-good vibes may have helped when McIlroy did pull out his driver on the next, a 618-yard monster par-5. After six weeks of mostly woe of the tee, this felt like a big moment. McIlroy met it as he delivered his longest drive of the season, a booming blast down the fairway which got a full 65 yards of run for a jaw-dropping 392-yard total distance. Questions answered? Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

The birdie four that followed put McIlroy at 2-under and at the head of proceedings as the patrons began to pour in. From there it was steady stuff, six-straight pars before the turn.

A tale of two nines for Rory.

33-41 from our 2011 champion as he sits 8 off the pace. pic.twitter.com/xQtIdHa1Vd

— U.S. Open (@usopengolf) June 12, 2025

Even in the early going, it was clear that the front nine was playing harder than the back. McIlroy duly found a first bogey of the day on the 1st, his 10th, but it was a completely unforced error. A brilliant drive was wasted as he misjudged the downhill green and then three-putted. This was not the kind of course to fritter one away like that.

A more typical Oakmont meltdown moment threatened on the 4th when McIlroy’s wildest drive of the day, another right leak that kept going that way, found a hazard. McIlroy eschewed a drop when that was clearly the shrewd play and instead tried to hack it out. Over the next two shots he advanced his ball less than 100 feet — feet, not yards. His fifth shot was a six iron from 203 yards back and left him 25 feet from the hole. Clawing his way back from calamity he made the putt.

Another bogey followed on the 6th to put McIlroy into black numbers for the first time. Oakmont’s eternal appeal for the punter is that it punishes anything that isn’t perfect or close to it. McIlroy was leaking oil and trying to scramble in a place not built for it. Another bogey followed at seven and trouble off the tee on the mammoth par-3 8th put him in serious bother. Double bogey and suddenly he was 4-over.

McIlroy’s slow slip into treacherous territory was in marked contrast to his close friend who was mostly toiling all day alongside him. Decked out in Thursday turquoise, Lowry was feeling blue early as trouble off the tee led him into a bunker with his second and a bogey six followed.

More trap trouble arrived on the par-3 16th and the Offaly man chipped across the green into cabbage on the far side. A disastrous double followed, one minor misjudgement punished severely. Another bogey on the 18th ensured Lowry turned in foul humour having taken some frustration out when tossing a fairway microphone aside on the previous hole.

That didn’t improve when he tried to play it safe on the short par-4 2nd, his 11th, and stumbled into another double-bogey six. Now sitting at 6-over and not having a good time at all at all, Lowry needed a bolt from the blue. It duly arrived.

A booming drive down the left of the 470-yard third hole left Lowry nestled up near the iconic Church Pew bunker. With 160 yards in to the elevated green he sent a crisp, heavenly iron which bounced in front of the pin, slowed just a touch and dropped into the bottom of the cup for the most unlikely eagle.

Could it be a turning point? Alas, no. His mighty tee-to-green struggles continued all the way to a very out-of-character crooked Thursday score. Three more bogeys and a double on the 7th ran the score up in a hurry. It got to the point that a par on the last was late relief however Lowry’s 79 threatens to leave him with another major weekend off.

Not since 2018 had Lowry missed back-to-back major cuts. After having a PGA Championship to forget at Quail Hollow last month, he’s in need of a serious Friday turnaround to avoid another abrupt exit.