Rory McIlroy has enjoyed a fine start to the Open
(Picture: AP)There has been a predictability about the opening of the past three Majors.
Each time, conversation has focused on LIV Golf and its band of rebels, and each time Rory McIlroy has been rolled out to explain why it is the wrong approach for the sport and those peers, who have been lured by the dollar signs.
The other constant of those Majors has been the strong start McIlroy has made, on Thursday recording an opening round of 66, his best since winning the Open, the last of his four Major wins.
Once he struggled to make a good start at the Majors with the weight of expectation — he was 34-over par for his opening rounds in the big four from 2015 to 2021. And he was left to rely on barnstorming finishes like the 64 at this year’s Masters.
Yesterday’s opening 66, which included just one dropped shot and left him two behind leader Cameron Young, followed a 67 at the US Open and a 65 at the PGA Championship, and it clicked from the opening hole with a 55-foot for birdie.
The contrast could not have been more stark to his infamous opening hole at Portrush in 2019 when a quadruple bogey derailed his Open ambitions before they’d had a chance to get going.
“It was great to get off to a strong start,” said the Northern Ireland golfer. “It hasn’t been my strong suit but the last three Majors I’ve gotten off to a nice start which is all you can ask for.
“I played well. I only made one mistake. It’s about limiting your mistakes. Only one bogey today was good. I’m driving the ball well, I’m giving myself chances as my iron play is a little bit better than it has been and I’m putting well.
“I’m putting well, I’m seeing shots well… I’m thinking well. The most important thing this week is thinking well. If you do that, you’ll keep yourself in this tournament.
“But I can’t get ahead of myself. I have to keep playing how I know I’m playing. This course does give you a lot of opportunities. I’ve got to birdie the holes you should and limit the mistakes.”
That monster putt on the opening hole aside, there were other moments of magic, most notably his tee shot at the 12th, which rocketed across the bone-dry fairway and landed just off it 411 yards later.
McIlroy went into Friday afternoon’s round — teeing off in a group with defending champion Collin Morikawa and the Olympic champion Xander Schauffele — brimming with confidence.
One of the biggest changes has been in his putting. In 2020, he ranked 122nd on the PGA Tour for his putting, a level leagues below the rest of his game. But an unlikely partnership with Brad Faxon, who never finished higher than fifth in a Major but has become something of a putting guru, has transformed him.
Faxon recalls: “When I met him, I thought, ‘Let’s get him back to basics’. My goal was to get him freed up and confident in his stroke. It doesn’t have to be perfect. The reality is that 90 per cent of what you’re doing with putting happens before you hit the putt.”
McIlroy credits Faxon with the simplification of his putting stroke, allowing him to be much more of a feel player on the greens as he is elsewhere on the golf course.
Meanwhile, McIlroy’s former Ryder Cup team-mate Lee Westwood laid down a marker for LIV Golf with an opening four-under-par round of 68 to match fellow rebel Dustin Johnson’s score.
Whereas another LIV name, Ian Poulter, was booed on the opening hole, Westwood said he had “a fantastic reception”, and was testy about his role in the new series.
“The media are stoking it up,” he said. “I think the general public just want to go out there and see good golf no matter where it’s being played or who’s playing it. And I’ve spoken to a lot of people, and there’s no animosity between the players.”
