Smylie Kaufman has revealed which shot Rory McIlroy hit during the opening round at The Open Championship which really surprised him, with the Northern Irishman now needing a brilliant Friday just to make the cut at Royal Troon.
Many would have been hopeful that Rory McIlroy would respond to his US Open heartbreak by making a real statement with his opening round at Royal Troon. Unfortunately, the 35-year-old only seemed to play himself out of contention, particularly on the back nine.
McIlroy was lever par heading onto the eighth tee, and his shot into the Postage Stamp was so close to leaving him with an amazing birdie chance. However, the ball rolled off the green and into the bunker – and he ended up walking off with a double bogey.
McIlroy was surprised by how tough the back nine was playing, with another double bogey coming on the 11th hole as he found the train tracks with his driver.
Smylie Kaufman surprised by what Rory McIlroy did on 11 at Open Championship
He was nowhere as near as good off the tee as he had been at Pinehurst last month. And Smylie Kaufman was surprised that he did not take a page from the same book that he had used in North Carolina, with McIlroy brilliantly utilising that low bullet that does not go quite as far, but did not miss the fairway.
“If he doesn’t make double bogey at 8, maybe he makes some different decisions. I think 10, you never knew, it’s just a weird tee shot. I think if there’s any one to play Monday morning quarterback on, it’s just the shot at 11, you could hit iron off that tee and hit seven iron in, or hit three wood and have a nine iron. That would be the one that you look at, because the rest of the day, I didn’t mind the decisions on the back to hit driver on all the holes that he did because if he pulls off the driver, he’s got flick wedges in,” he said on The Smylie Show.
“Really, if you could take out and eliminate one side of the course with the bunkers, especially on some of the holes on the back, you could do it. But he unfortunately hit two pulls with his driver on the backside, where he was trying to eliminate the left side and didn’t do it and just hit good tee balls and just ended up on a day where everything’s going wrong in bad places.
“Especially on 11, he pulled it off on the second one. If he hits the fairway, we’re probably not talking about it, but since he hit it OB, I saw that ball was way up in the air, and that surprised me, seeing him try to hit the high bomb there.”
Northern Irishman potentially lost his patience
It almost felt as if McIlroy decided that he had to start attacking the course on the back nine to make sure that he was not far off the lead, perhaps sensing that he was unlikely to play in better conditions before the weekend.
It was a surprise considering how consistent he had been at the Scottish Open. McIlroy had an incredibly frustrating weekend with the putter at The Renaissance Club, but played extremely well from tee to green, and many may have expected that he would be able to replicate that at Troon.
Unfortunately, he is now going to need something like his best form, in trying conditions, to absolutely make sure that he makes the weekend.
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