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Gareth Hanna and Adam McKendry
Today at 21:04
Rory McIlroy is under par and hunting down the leaders as the Open Championship is officially under way at Royal Portrush.
The world number two made a three-putt bogey start but roared back after a pivotal moment sawhim change club to recover from a wayward drive at the second.
Earlier, Holywood’s Tom McKibbin carded an early one over par 72, three shots ahead of Darren Clarke while Jacob Skov Olesen and Haotong Li got in a -4 in the pick of the morning scores.
Among the group one shot back is Sadom Kaewkanjana, a Thai professional who is also an ordained Buddhist monk.
The 2019 champion Shane Lowry finished up at -1. Rory is alongside Justin Thomas and Tommy Fleetwood while Jordan Spieth and Bryson DeChambeau are out on the course this evening too.
The Open: McIlroy mania sweeps Portrush as locals slam ‘extortionate’ price hikes
Follow along with all the week’s action right here on our blog:
Key updates
Meet the Buddhist monk who’s one shot off the lead
The Open Guinness tracker: Where’s the cheapest pint in Portrush this week?
Darren Clarke on shooting a 75: ‘Maybe I should have spent more time in the Harbour Bar!’
Massive par save
Rory’s chip is both good and bad as he banks it off the slope and uses the contours to bring it towards the hole, and it only just misses hitting the pin flush and dropping. But it leaves him a testing 11-footer for par.
But he holes it! It looks off line from where I’m standing but as it gets towards the hole it turns left and goes right in the centre! How big could that be!
Still E thru 15.
Rory gets one closer to the lead!
Not by making a birdie… but by Harris English coming back to -4 by surrendering a shot at the 14th. Back to that five-way tie with the four lads who are already finished.
Will this round ever finish?
Rory’s now been out there for five hours and has just finished the 15th. It’s disgraceful, really. Not just Rory, obviously – that’s just an example. The whole thing is this slow.
A birdie at last, thank God Almighty, a birdie at last
Jordan Spieth finally gets a red number on the board – a three at the 15th and he’s back to +3 for the week.
Short game needed again
Good contact from Rory from the lie he had but it kicks off the slope in front of the green and rolls off to the right and down the hill into the rough. He looks after it incredulous, nothing seems to be going right at the moment and he’ll need some short game magic to rescue this one.
Tommy Fleetwood and Justin Thomas, meanwhile, played almost identical shots as they both ran up the back of the green and then off the slope at the back. So all three need some wedge wizardry here.
Something else meh
We’re just shy of five hours this marquee group has been on the course and they’ve still got four holes to play. We’re not going to be far off a six-hour round here which, even in a Major, is ridiculous.
Anyway, on to 15 where all three are happy with their tee shots but Rory hit his too well and he’s down the slope, so even though he only has 83 yards in he’ll be hitting off a downhill and sidehill lie. That will not be easy.
More misery for DeChambeau
He’s still +5… but now he’s in the hollow at Calamity.
Another bogey at 14
Rory McIlroy, who only four holes ago was one shot off the lead, is now five back at level-par as he manages to chip up to five feet and hole the putt. Three bogeys in four holes has been costly.
Tommy Fleetwood makes a fantastic par save with an impressive putt to stay two-over, while Justin Thomas cleans up for his par to stay one-over.
This group needs something to light the spark again. It’s all gone a bit… meh.
Tidy par save
Harris English makes a good up and down at the 13th to remain at -5 and in the lead.
All going wrong for Rory
Another shot he hates the second the club makes impact as the ball squirts right off the face and into a dip beside the green. He needs to make up and down just to save bogey and stay level par.
The swagger is most definitely gone and it’s not helped that neither Fleetwood, who is scrambling for par himself after also finding a fairway bunker, or Thomas, who has a long birdie putt, are playing well enough to drag him back along.
Hands off
Rory lets go of the driver as soon as he hits it on 14 and it’s soared right of the fairway and into a bunker, which could mean another lay up. He is not a happy bunny walking off the tee.
It is indeed a lay up so the 100-yards in game will have to serve him well once more.
Finally somebody hits fiveAnd it’s Harris English who breaks clear of that -4 mark to take the solo lead at the Open Championship. After his long-range birdie on 11, he backs it up with four at the 12th. That’s the seventh birdie of a round that has featured just two pars. If you want fireworks and to stay away from the Rory madness, hold on for the group behind.
Meanwhile, Christian Bezuidenhout pars his way in from the 12th to join the clubhouse lead at -4. A near miss on the 18th green merited a frustrated putter flip.
“Go on, go on… OH!”
There’s the par McIlroy needed!
It was almost a birdie, an outstanding chip from the hollow behind the green rolling towards the hole and finishing just short of the pin, with the crowd thinking it might drop.
Stops the rot, stays at -1 thru 13. Thomas (+1) and Fleetwood (+2) also secure pars.
That bogey of Rory’s…
He’s the first person to drop a shot at the 12th since Daniel Berger a few hours ago. 24 players had passed in between and successfully managed par or better. Sigh.
McIlroy misery
Off the clubface he hates his tee shot on the par-three 13th and for good reason as it pitches just beyond the flag and rolls off the back left of the green, where Tommy Fleetwood finds himself too.
Justin Thomas has hit a good one to about 12 feet for birdie but this is all about McIlroy – he needs a par to stop the rot.
The cries of “Grand Slam baby!” as he walks to the green likely aren’t helping either.
Super six becomes fantastic five
Lucas Glover is back out of a tie for the lead after a bogey at 11. The old wayward tee shot + failure to get up and down from off the green combo.
Bogey
That’s a really painful one for Rory. Really painful. He stood on the 11th tee one back of the lead and back to back bogeys, including a three-putt one on a par-five, is a real momentum killer. Back to -1.
The crowd feel it too. There was a deflated feeling all round when that missed.
Welcome to cut-watch with BrysonA disaster at the 13th. Hacked out. Poor chip. Missed put. Five. Double.
He’s not +5 and in a tie for 132nd.
Work to do
Rory’s monster putt had the line but not the length and he’s left himself a seven footer for par to avoid a really painful bogey on not just a par five but the easiest hole on the course. That would be a real momentum killer.
Even worse for Justin Thomas and Tommy Fleetwood as both of their putts loop invitingly towards the hole but halt just a few rolls short of a birdie.
You don’t have to be a lip-reader…Rory’s tee shot on the par five 12th ends up in the bunker, where Tommy Fleetwood joins him. Rory pitches out to follow the three-shot route that has paid dividends for him on par fives today. But wherever it ended up, his one-word summary towards the camera was unmistakeable.
Ah it rolled down the slope into the semi-rough, making the 137-yard approach more difficult than it should be. And it duly ends up a full 73 feet away from the hole. A two-putt will do from there.
Rory McIlroy’s problems off the tee caught up with him on the back nine on Saturday
The Open at Royal Portrush: What happened in 2019