Rory McIlroy opened his Amgen Irish Open title defense with a round of one-under 69 at Trump International Golf Links in Doonbeg. It was a respectable score in difficult conditions, but not the ideal start the Northern Irishman would have hoped for. He finished four shots behind the leader, Joaquin Niemann, who carded a round of five-under 65. One of the key reasons behind the six-time major winner’s mediocre round was a double bogey on the par-four 13th.
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Speaking at the post-round conference, he opened up about what led to the double bogey.
“So, fairway bunker play wouldn’t be my forte. But, yeah, I tried to take too much club and get it out of there, and that sort of backfired on me. But apart from that, I felt like I struck the ball pretty well today and hit some good shots coming down the stretch. The putting’s always hard in the wind as well. Look, I hung in there, shot under par, and at least don’t feel like I’m out of the tournament. A good day tomorrow gets me right back in it,” Rory McIlroy said.
The Northern Irishman started with a 288-yard drive on the par-four 13th, but the ball found a fairway bunker. His approach shot from the bunker advanced only a yard, leaving 151 yards to the hole. McIlroy lost 0.71 strokes in that approach shot. He finally found the fairway after his third shot. He then found the green, missed a 10-footer bogey putt, and tapped in from 14 inches for the double bogey.
The par-four 13th proved to be the toughest hole today, as 13 golfers hit double bogeys on it. It had a score of +0.71 strokes. But as Rory McIlroy said, he did pretty well except for that double bogey. He hit three birdies on holes 2, 4, and 15. By finishing tied for 17th after the opening round, he still has a good chance to defend the Irish Open.
The 30-time PGA Tour winner blamed two things for the tough conditions at Trump International Golf Links that led to poor performances by many professionals. One of them was strong winds, and the other was slow play.
The strong winds even led to unavoidable delays. As a result, many golfers will have to return early tomorrow morning to complete their first round. Some of the top performers, including Renato Paratore, Maximilian Steinlechner, and Adrian Meronk, all at three-under, are yet to finish their rounds.
As for the slow play, winds caused some delays, which, according to Rory McIlroy, didn’t allow professionals to get into a rhythm. With close to 140 players in the field, including elites like Jon Rahm, Shane Lowry, Sergio Garcia, Alex Fitzpatrick, Brooks Koepka, and others, there is a lot of stop-and-start play, which the defending Masters champion says makes it hard to find that rhythm.
He even recalled that after the double bogey on the 13th, he was trying to get those two strokes back by the end of the day. However, he couldn’t achieve that. He only managed one birdie on the 15th after that double bogey.
Rory McIlroy believes that finishing under par was a good effort for a windy day like today. However, he is already four strokes behind the leader, Joaquin Niemann. And there are many at three-under par with holes left in their opening round. This means that the gap could widen further at the end of Round 1. Thus, the six-time major winner will have to come back strong tomorrow to keep his hopes of defending the Irish Open alive.