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СпутникиРНSpaceXРоскосмосNASANorthern Ireland's Rory McIlroy was left frustrated after 'stupid mistakes' and a poor putting display left him seven shots off the pace
22:26, 16 Jul 2026Updated 22:34, 16 Jul 2026
Rory McIlroy remains optimistic about mounting a challenge at the Open Championship despite opening his campaign at Royal Birkdale with a disappointing two-over-par 72.
The Masters champion struggled with his putter on the Southport links, squandering multiple chances and recording six bogeys throughout his round.
He salvaged some ground with four birdies, including one at the 18th, and having battled the toughest conditions of the opening day before completing his round at 8.43pm, is convinced he can recover.
The world number two, who sits seven shots behind surprise leader Jackson Suber, said: "There were just too many stupid mistakes – but every time I made a stupid mistake, thankfully I made a birdie to sort of keep myself in it.
"I'm not too far away. If you look at the discrepancy between the scoring this morning and the scoring this afternoon, it looks like that's going to be flipped tomorrow with the conditions again.
"Hopefully I can take advantage of the more benign conditions in the morning and shoot one under par and get back in it."
McIlroy's putting woes saw him miss three attempts from inside four feet, leaving him languishing in 104th place in the putting statistics.
His struggles reached a low point at the par-five 17th, where after hooking his approach into the gallery and then flying the green into a bunker, he twisted his body awkwardly to splash out to eight feet – only to miss the putt for a bogey.
At least he ended on an upbeat note with a superb approach from 198 yards to five feet, finally converting a short birdie putt. He said: "I left one from pretty much tap-in range on nine to make a birdie. I missed three four-footers in the space of four holes and that's tough.
"But I'm not going to go back to the house and analyse it too much. I'll focus on the positives, which were I took it on off the tee and drove the ball very, very well, hit some really good shots, played the hard holes well."
McIlroy faces a significant challenge to overturn recent historical trends and capture a second Open crown and seventh major championship in total, which would officially make him the most successful European golfer of all time.
While he did mount a remarkable comeback to win last year's Masters from seven shots back, each of the previous 26 Open champions have been positioned within five shots of the lead following the opening round. The last competitor to overcome a larger deficit was Mark O'Meara in 1998, notably at Birkdale.
McIlroy stood at two over through seven holes, having failed to get up and down at the par-three fourth and two-putted from inside four feet at the short but tricky seventh.
He squandered a three-footer at the following hole – on this occasion for birdie – but eventually registered one after driving the green at the downwind 415-yard ninth, making the turn at one over.
Consecutive bogeys at the beginning of his inward nine stalled any progress before a 24-footer dropped at the 13th for his second birdie of the round.
He struggled badly on both par-fives – despite holing a 12ft birdie at the 206-yard 15th – but managed to salvage something towards the finish.
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