Rory McIlroy will need a very good round two at the Scottish Open to move into contention despite firing a two under round of 68 to get this week underway.
McIlroy finished strongly to ensure he was at least somewhere in the mix but with round two already underway and Victor Perez storming to nine under par early on, there’s work to be done for the Masters winner.
McIlroy is looking to get back into some sort of form ahead of The Open at Royal Portrush next week.
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The Northern Irishman has tinkered with his swing and other elements of his game this season, despite starting the year brilliantly with wins at Pebble Beach, Augusta and then The Players.
Still, it seems McIlroy isn’t completely comfortable and he admitted after round one of the Scottish Open that he did encounter some struggles.
Rory McIlroy struggles again in round one of the Scottish Open
McIlroy is always searching for those improvements in his game and at times over the years, it’s actually been to the detriment of his form.
Nevertheless, he is like every other golfer and always looking for that little bit extra.
However, asked at Renaissance Club just where his game is right now, McIlroy admitted it’s not at 100% just yet.
“Probably like 80 percent. Felt like I struggled the a lot in left-to-right winds today. Right-to-left wind, I was fine. Felt very comfortable sort of holding the ball against it. The last three holes were in off the right which was comfortable but some of the holes where I got myself in trouble the tee shots were left-to-right and let it go in the wind a bit too much,” McIlroy admitted.
“It’s been hard, like all last week, I was hitting balls in the wind, it was required and the range here is right-to-left. So haven’t had much of an opportunity to hit balls in a different wind direction. So the next three days gives me that opportunity to get a bit more comfortable with that.”
The hole at Renaissance Club Rory McIlroy isn’t happy with
Having played all around the world for 20 plus years now, McIlroy is very much in a position to comment on what makes a great golf course.
And while the Renaissance Club is a fine old track, McIlroy suggested one of the holes wasn’t very well designed after finding himself in the same spot as Viktor Hovland.
“I would say Viktor and my tee shots pitched 30 yards apart and we ended up in the same spot. Maybe not the best design of a golf hole,” McIlroy said yesterday.
“I was lucky I was on the upslope and just had enough room to get it up. The lip, I wasn’t worried about. It was the wall that was in front of the lip. So it was just, I had a gap wedge and it was nice the ball was on the upslope. I could try to hit it as hard as I could and get it up there and that was a good hole to save par on.“
McIlroy will need another round at least matching his opening day to get into the mix for the weekend.
Having proven it before in Scotland though, few would back against him producing something magical.
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