Rory McIlroy‘s driving was elite at The Open 2026: 43 yards above the field average. However, his putting was a disaster, costing him 2.73 strokes. That’s why he’s two-over after Round 1 at Royal Birkdale. McIlroy expressed frustration about his round at the post-round press conference.

“I felt like I learned quite a bit today about how the course is playing, how the ball is reacting out of the first cut of rough. Definitely, when it gets that burnt and that dry, it can sort of do some weird things. I feel like it exaggerates the spin quite a lot. If you’re hitting a draw or hitting a fade, it seems to exaggerate the spin on the ball a lot. Happened to me a few times out there.”

“But I’m not going to go back to the house and analyze it too much tonight. Again, focus on the positives, which were that I took it off the tee and drove the ball very, very well, and hit some really good shots. I made too many sloppy mistakes and just need to cut those out.”

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The 30-time PGA Tour winner carded a two-over 72. He carded four birdies but six bogeys, a pattern that reveals his day: explosive moments undermined by mental lapses. However, as he noted, he did well off the tee: SG: Off-the-Tee was +2.13 for the round. The longest drive he hit was 389 yards, while his average driving distance was 347 yards, 43 yards more than the field’s average. The problem, however, was that his driving accuracy was only 42.9%.

Apart from that, his putting was the culprit—SG: Putting of -2.73, the round’s weakest metric. The six-time major champion’s comments confirm it: he blamed sloppy mistakes for his mental struggles.

“Yeah, I feel like I missed a couple early on that looked like they were going to break one way and they actually went another way, and then when you get the next one, you’re over it, and it’s just very hard to trust that the ball is going to do what you think it’s going to do. Then you maybe don’t make quite as committed a stroke.”

The par-3 7th illustrated his day: a 155-yard tee shot left him 53 feet away; he nearly holed it from 3’9″, but missed the putt for bogey.

But despite these sloppy mistakes, he doesn’t want to over-analyze the round. When asked what he would do instead, the 37-year-old said he would grab dinner, have a shower, and then go to sleep. He’s already moved on to tomorrow.

This is not an isolated incident for the 2026 Masters champion. For instance, he started the 2019 Open Championship poorly with an eight-over 79, but came back stronger the next day, posting a strong six-under 65. Sadly, though, it was not enough to help him make the cut. The 2026 PGA Championship had a similar trend: a poor opening round of four-over 74, followed by stronger finishes in later rounds (67, 66, and 69) to finish T7.

So, the question is not about his troubling opening round anymore because that’s already a thing of the past for him. The real question now is whether he can make a strong comeback tomorrow.