{"id":843755,"date":"2026-09-11T05:24:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T05:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/843755\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T05:24:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T05:24:10","slug":"rory-mcilroy-survives-windy-opening-round-four-back-of-joaquin-niemann-at-irish-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/843755\/","title":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy survives windy opening round, four back of Joaquin Niemann at Irish Open"},"content":{"rendered":"

Round 1 at the Amgen Irish Open was a battle of man versus nature. Rainy, blustery conditions assailed golfers at Doonberg on Thursday, with gusts exceeding 30 mph at times. Sights of players abbreviating follow-throughs, bracing against the battering wind, running to mark balls on the exposed, undulated greens, and repeatedly donning and removing rain gear abounded on the seaside links. The severe conditions slowed down play, making it a long day. <\/p>\n

Rory McIlroy salvaged a 1-under 69, and sits four off the lead.<\/p>\n

McIlroy commented on the glacial pace of play, \u201cThis course isn\u2019t conducive to letting you get into a flow, especially the first two days with so many people in the field, there was a lot of stopping and starting. When you\u2019re playing a round of golf and it takes six hours it\u2019s hard to get into the rhythm of things. But felt like I did a good job.\u201d<\/p>\n

McIlroy had a clean card, except for a double bogey on the par-4 13th hole, where he took two to get out of the left fairway bunker.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter making the double bogey on 13, I was just trying to get those two shots back by the end of the day,\u201d McIlroy said. \u201cI didn\u2019t quite do that, but I think finishing under par for the day was a reasonable effort.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Tune in for the second round of the Amgen Irish Open at Trump International Golf Links & Hotel in Doonbeg, Ireland.<\/p>\n

Joaquin Niemann navigated the extreme conditions better than anyone, finishing with four birdies in his last five holes, leading the way at 5-under 65.<\/p>\n

Just as the last light was fading over Doonberg, Shane Lowry finished with a 67. Lowry was pleased with his performance, but also noted the pace of play: \u201cI honestly didn\u2019t think we were going to get finished. That\u2019s probably the longest round of golf I ever played, in a three ball anyway. I\u2019m happy with my score.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nineteen players were still yet to finish as the horn blew and play was suspended due to darkness. They will resume in the morning restart at 6:15 a.m. (IST) local time.<\/p>\n

Padraig Harrington, making his record 31st consecutive Irish Open start, shot a 71.<\/p>\n

Patrick Reed, a two-time winner on the DP World Tour this season, sits three back at 2 under.<\/p>\n

Defending champion McIlroy will go out at 9:30 a.m. local time Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hung in there,\u201d McIlroy said of his opening performance, \u201cand at least don\u2019t feel like I\u2019m out of the tournament. A good day tomorrow gets me right back in it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Round 1 at the Amgen Irish Open was a battle of man versus nature. Rainy, blustery conditions assailed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":843756,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":["post-843755","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\/843755","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=843755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843755\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/843756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=843755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=843755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=843755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}