Shane Lowry let a solid round fall apart in the closing stages at TPC Sawgrass as a final hole quadruple-bogey eight left him with an opening four-over-par round of 76 at the Players Championship.

The Offalyman was two-under-par through 13 without a dropped shot when he went bogey-double bogey on 14 and 15 before recovering to birdie the famous island green 17th hole with a wedge to seven feet.

But it all went wrong on the par four 18th when he pulled his tee shot into the water, reteed and hit on the fairway, but then pulled his approach into the water, the second time on the hole, en route to carding an eight.

Two weeks ago, Lowry was winning the Cognizant Classic by three strokes with three holes to go when he hit it in the water on 16 and 17 to lose by two shots to Nico Echavarria. His unfortunate finish yesterday at Sawgrass left him battling to make the cut in tied 99th position.

Rory McIlroy, meanwhile, struggled to a two-over-par 74 (the same score as Séamus Power) and did not blame his back for the performance but said he felt “rusty” without practising in the build-up to the tournament.

“I would say the most discomfort was like when the ball was below my feet or with chipping, just like getting down a little bit to it.

“Honestly, overall it was fine. [I] got a little bit tired at the end of the day, but it was actually all pretty good.”

McIlroy added: “It’s not as if I’ve taken a ton of time off, but [I] just felt like unbelievably rusty out there.

“I’m glad I got through the round. Hopefully tonight goes well and I will get out there tomorrow.

“If I can go out and shoot a good one, I feel like I’ll be right in it for the weekend.”

There is a five-way tie for the lead on five under, with 67s shot by Maverick McNealy, Lee Hodges, Sepp Straka and Sahith Theegala, with Austin Smotherman on the 18th hole with that score when play was suspended due to darkness. Justin Thomas, Russell Henley, Taylor Moore and Cameron Young are on four under, while Xander Schauffele, Tommy Fleetwood and Ludvig Aberg were among those on three under. World number one Scottie Scheffler is on level par.