Rory McIlroy’s decision to leave the driver in his locker did not affect his ability to score as he carded six birdies around the narrow Delhi Golf Club but was let down by three bogeys in the opening round of the DP World India Championship.

The world No. 2 got off to an ideal start by chipping in from the fringe at his first hole, the 10th, but his difficulties began at No. 11, where he three-putted, before he failed to get up and down for back-to-back bogeys.

Despite the absence of the longest club in his bag, McIlroy had no problems birdieing the two par-5s to make the turn at 1 under, and he picked up three more shots over the next seven holes.

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However, he bogeyed the 522-yard eighth to finish with a 3-under 69, five behind clubhouse leader Shane Lowry.

“Dog [driver] was out of the bag, probably asleep in the locker. I was sort of thinking about it last night before I went to bed,” McIlroy said of his club selection in his postround interview. “Sometimes if you’re really conservative off a par-5 today, you might have like a 5-wood into the green, but I’m never going to hit driver. So I just thought I’ve got to 2-iron, 3-iron, 4-iron all the way through, and then I’ve got a 5-wood just in case I need to hit it for an approach shot on a par-5.”

That didn’t help him on his 17th hole, the par-5 eighth, when he pulled his tee shot into the trees, advanced it only about 15 yards into the rough and made a bogey.

McIlroy said the course was still “pretty tricky” despite the limited length needed off the tee.

“You’re just really trying to be as conservative as possible off the tee and then trying to pick off birdies on the par-5s and maybe pick up a couple more,” he said.

Lowry, who rattled off eight birdies to take the lead, said the constant noise of Delhi traffic was much easier to handle than an abusive New York Ryder Cup crowd.

Playing with European captain Luke Donald and teammate Tommy Fleetwood, Lowry hit a hot streak with five successive birdies on the back nine against the background noise of the honks and horns of the capital’s incessant road network. He closed his round of 64 with a birdie on No. 18.

“We all had a great time and we all played pretty good, and I just rolled off a few more birdies than they did on the back nine,” Lowry said. “We could hear the horns from the road; it was not as off-putting as the Bethpage crowd.

“There was a little Ryder Cup chat out there, but at the end of the day, we are all professional golfers and ultimately we all want to beat each other, even though we are friends.”

Fleetwood and Donald both finished at 4 under.

Keita Nakajima (65) also had five straight birdies in the middle of his round, starting on No. 18 and then four straight to begin the front nine. This is an important time of the year for the former world No. 1 amateur as he tries to get into the top 10 of European tour players who would be granted PGA Tour cards for 2026.

Ben Griffin, who made his Ryder Cup debut for the U.S. team, opened with a 68 alongside another American, Michael Kim, who was late arriving in India because of visa issues. Kim already has won on the European tour this year at the French Open.

This is the start of a big stretch run for McIlroy at the end of the year, as he also plans to play the Abu Dhabi Championship and DP World Tour Championship, along with the Australian Open.

The Associated Press and PA contributed to this report.