Some discomfort but no squirming this time as McIlroy survives first day at Portrush

IN THE MIX: Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy chips on to the 15th green.

Paul McGinley is voicing a diddly-eye ad for Irish tourism this week. Padraig Harrington, a man who seems to know his ice cream, has been bragging that the 99s at this ‘Irish’ Open are better than anywhere else on the Championship rota.

There’s times when all this stuff, all this back-patting, can feel a bit corny. A bit much. Then you stand beside the first tee at Royal Portrush’s Dunluce links just after three o’clock on Thursday and you’re blown away by the scene stretching out before you.

Ireland really does do golf well. On both sides of the ropes.

To see that sea of people, four and five deep, all the way down the 420-yard hole known as ‘Hughie’s’ was to imagine what the Circus Maximus must have looked like when Rome was at its peak and charioteers were risking lives and limbs.

Rory McIlroy wasn’t in any physical danger when he stood over his first shot at the 153rd Open, but this didn’t lack any for drama given the torture that unfolded here in 2019 when he hooked his first ball left and out of bounds and signed for a quadruple bogey.

Do we have to bother adding that he went and missed the cut?

His entire first round six years ago was an exercise in squirming discomfort: for him and for the rest of us. There was discomfort this time but no squirming. Armed with that breakthrough Masters title and career Grand Slam since April, McIlroy rode this one out.

Though his drive found rough down the left, it stayed in bounds. And if a missed tiddler that landed him with an opening bogey wasn’t great then it was no disaster. The worst of it was over. He could look the rest of the course in the eye again, on equal terms.

“Absolutely incredible,” he said. “Look, I feel the support of an entire country out there, which is a wonderful position to be in. But at the same time, you don't want to let them down. So there's that little bit of added pressure.

“I felt like I dealt with it really well today. Certainly dealt with it better than I did six years ago,” he added with a knowing laugh. “I was just happy to get off to a good start and get myself into the tournament.

“I was sort of surprised: there's a few guys at four-under, but I'm surprised four-under is leading. I thought someone might have gone out there and shot six or seven today. Only three back with 54 holes to go, I'm really happy with where I am.” 

By the 10th he had found four birdies, avoided any more bogeys and sat just one shot off the lead on three-under. Much more like it from the man who was still very much a boy when he took just 61 strokes to set a course record here back in 2006.

It wasn’t nearly as smooth as that sounds. His driving was all over the place and, while his chipping and putting was standing up to the test, an aversion to fairways that left him ranked third-last in the field off the tee was always likely to demand payment.

He had to dig deep into his pocket eventually.

Three bogeys in four holes, from 11 to 14, dragged him back to level par, and into doubt. He needed a huge putt from 12 feet on 15 and an up-and-down on Calamity’s par-three 16th to avoid slipping in to over-par status as the day pushed into a 15th hour of play.

That save on the 15th felt pivotal at the time. Like one of those sliding door moments that are highlighted and discussed with great solemnity on those retrospective interviews and documentaries when people turn a corner and sink to their knees on a Sunday.

“Yeah, it was important. It was a big putt, especially having bogeyed three of the last four at that point. That was important. It was a huge putt to keep whatever momentum I had. Then after that, playing those last three holes at one-under was great.” 

It was a brilliant approach from deep rough at the 17th that set up the 12-footer for birdie, and he flirted with another on the 18th hole to leave him with a one-under par 70 despite all that trouble off the tee. It could have been better, it could have been worse.

Never a dull moment with McIlroy.

“I had it going [at] three-under through 10 and let a few slip there around the middle of the round. I steadied the ship well, played the last four at one-under, and it was nice to shoot under par.

“I felt like once we turned for home, played 10 and turned back [away from the clubhouse] and played 11, the wind picked up a little bit and it just became that little bit more difficult.

“Yeah, it was a tough enough day, especially either chopping out of the rough or out of the fairway bunkers most of the time. So to shoot under-par was a good effort.” 

Not too shabby at all, given all that and the ghosts of 2019.