The latest glimpse of a return of Rory McIlroy\u2019s mojo arrived over the closing stretch of the Scottish Open\u2019s first round.<\/p>\n
He has spoken of an understandable need to find new mountains to scale after Masters glory<\/a> completed a career grand slam. On the 15th hole at the Renaissance Club, the Northern Irishman was in trouble; his fairway bunker shot had rolled back towards his feet. McIlroy\u2019s ball sat in the mark created by his first attempt. \u201cIt served me right for trying to hit a nine-iron with the lip two feet in front of me,\u201d he said later.<\/p>\n The response was notable. The world No 2 pitched out sideways, holed from 21ft \u2013 and the fringe of the green \u2013 for a bogey and rattled off three birdies in a row over the closing holes.<\/p>\n A 68 to start at the tournament which precedes McIlroy\u2019s Open Championship tilt at Portrush was hugely impressive in context. He sits only four shots from the lead.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a great finish,\u201d McIlroy said. \u201cThe round was a bit stop-start, there was a little bit of rust in there after taking a couple of weeks off. I felt like I found my rhythm and started hitting better shots on the way in. It is the sort of course and these are conditions where the field will be pretty bunched so to be only four behind, feeling like I still have my best stuff ahead of me, is good.\u201d The winner of five majors has the chance to make further impact from his early start on Friday.<\/p>\n McIlroy\u2019s finish involved converted putts of 26ft on the 17th and 19ft at the last. His birdie at 16 was a straightforward one, the par five having been comfortably reached in two. He regards his game as 80% towards where it needs to be for Portrush. \u201cI\u2019m ready to play,\u201d he added. \u201cA change of scenery has been nice, getting back over here has sort of renewed my excitement and enthusiasm for the rest of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n Scottie Scheffler felt he put in a decent score on his first day. Photograph: Stuart Wallace\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n Colombia\u2019s Nico Echavarr\u00eda, Sepp Straka, Victor Perez and Jake Knapp head proceedings at six under. Marcel Siem is among those at minus five. The German, now 44, admitted he has toned down the heavy partying that sat alongside his golfing pomp. \u201cI am not getting any younger,\u201d said Siem. \u201cI have to look after my body more now. I know I can stand on the range and hit golf balls, I\u2019ve done it my whole life. But it\u2019s more about recovery, sleeping well and not drinking.<\/p>\n \u201cI think those days of drinking and playing golf are over unfortunately. There is a time and place for it. It\u2019s nice to enjoy a few pints after a good result, for example. The problem is I\u2019m not in training any more. Two years ago, if I have one or two beers for dinner, it\u2019s fine. But I can\u2019t do it any more. On Monday this week, I had two pints of Guinness and felt horrible the next day. I think I am getting too old to be drinking and playing golf.\u201d Siem is hoping to earn an Open berth with a strong performance in East Lothian.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n The best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend\u2019s action<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Viktor Hovland, playing in McIlroy\u2019s company, signed for a 66. The world No 1, Scottie Scheffler, looked puzzled by the greens at various points but still produced a 67. \u201cI wish I would have played a little bit better,\u201d said the US PGA champion<\/a>. \u201cBut overall, I felt like I did some good things out there and hung in there nicely and put up a decent score. I wish it was a little bit lower but not too bad of a first round.\u201d<\/p>\n Scheffler played alongside the defending champion Bob MacIntyre, who made a 68. Justin Rose headed straight for the putting green after a level-par 70.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The latest glimpse of a return of Rory McIlroy\u2019s mojo arrived over the closing stretch of the Scottish…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1628,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":["post-1627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}