Rory McIlroy has shared what surprised him about Royal Troon during his opening round of The Open Championship which has left the Northern Irishman with a huge task just to make the cut.
Those expecting Rory McIlroy to make a real statement off the back of what happened at the US Open last month would have been left incredibly disappointed by the 35-year-old’s round on Thursday.
McIlroy finished just two shots ahead of 1997 champion Justin Leonard in South Ayrshire, with his problems really beginning at the Postage Stamp. He was fractions away from setting up a brilliant birdie chance, but the ball ended up falling off the green and into a nasty position in one of the bunkers.
The 2014 champion would go out of bounds on the 11th, and he would not find another birdie after the third hole. McIlroy played the back nine in five over par to leave himself well outside the top 100 on the leaderboard and needing an inspired Friday to even make the weekend.
Rory McIlroy shares what surprised him about Royal Troon
Speaking in comments reported by BBC Sport, McIlroy hinted that he was taken aback by how tough things were after the turn.
“A difficult day. I felt like I did OK for the first part of the round and missed the green at the Postage Stamp and left it in there and made a double,” he said.
“But still I felt like I was in reasonable enough shape being a couple over through nine. Thinking I could get those couple of shots back, try to shoot even par something like that. And then hitting the ball out of bounds on 11… making a double there. Even though the wind on the back nine was helping, it was a lot off the left, I was surprised by how difficult I felt the back nine played.
“I thought we were going to get it a little bit easier than we did. The course was playing tough. The conditions are very difficult in a wind that we haven’t seen so far this week. I guess that can happen… you play your practice rounds, you have your strategy that you think is going to help you get round the golf course but then when you get a wind that you haven’t played in, it starts to present different options, you start to think about hitting a few clubs that you haven’t hit in practice.
“Just one of those days where I didn’t adapt well enough to the conditions.”
Northern Irishman now has freedom to attack on Friday
It was often said in the build-up to the event that the front nine is so different to the back nine, largely due to the conditions, so perhaps it is a surprise that McIlroy was caught off-guard by the final nine holes.
McIlroy is going to need all of his resilience to turn this tournament around – it already appears that he has too much to do to seriously contend, even with the leader after the morning tee times, Justin Thomas, sat at three under par.
Perhaps what happened on Thursday will actually free McIlroy up. Justin Rose noted that he felt that there was an opportunity to produce a special round, so there is a good score to be had out there if the conditions are right.
McIlroy is one of those players who could leave the field stunned on Friday if everything clicks. But clearly, he can barely afford to put a foot wrong tomorrow.
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