Rory McIlroy wasn’t quite his swashbuckling self on the opening day of the Men’s Olympic Golf Championship at Le Golf National on the outskirts of Paris, but he managed to grind out a three-under 68 to keep his Olympic dreams alive.
Overnight and early-morning rain softened the Albatross Course at Le Golf National, and finding fariways allowed the 60-strong field to take an aggressive approach once they found the short grass, but that’s easier said than done at the 2018 Ryder Cup venue and the world number three found just eight of 14 fairways on day one.
Crucially, he did on each of the par-5s, birdieing the first and last of these with the highlight of the round coming at the ninth where a well-positioned tee shot left him 5-wood in hand and his 278-yard approach came to rest five feet from the hole and he rolled in the eagle putt.
This took him to -3 at the turn, having bogeyed the second and recorded birdies at the par-5 third and par-4 fifth, the latter courtesy of a perfectly-rolled 26-foot putt.
A wide-right off the 10th tee would see a shot given back straight away, and another miss to the right on the 12th would lead to a 67-foot three-putt from the fringe.
But when he was in the fairway, he was generally in business, and three accurate tee shots in a row would lead to three consecutive birdies at the par-4 13th and 15th holes, and the aforementioned final par-5.
A neat up-and-down on 17 would see him save par, but after finding the heart of the 18th green in two, he’d inexplicably bash his first putt 15 feet past and, unable to hole the comeback-putt, was forced to settle for a closing bogey that will have removed some of the flavour from his lunch.
“A bit up and down which was to be expected,” he said afterwards. “I didn’t do a whole lot between The Open and here so some good, some not so good. A solid opening round a little disappointing, the three-putt at the last but overall as I said a solid start and something to build on.”
He was pleasantly surprised to see such large galleries gathered for the event’s opening day, particularly given how far outside the city centre the golf course is located, and the crowd made their presence felt with loud “Allez” chants reverberating around Le Golf National as the marquee grouping of McIlroy, world number one Scottie Scheffler and Swede Ludvig Aberg took to the first tee.
“It was very surprising with so many events going on,” McIlroy explained. “It is spread all across the city. For people to venture out here and watch us play it was really cool atmosphere to play in.
“Not (expecting) this. I thought maybe the weekend we might get a few more people but the first couple of days might be a little bit quieter. But it was awesome out there.”
The lust for gold has been heightened after Daniel Wiffen won the nation’s first Gold Medal of the Games in the 800m freestyle event in the swimming pool on Tuesday evening, and McIlroy was among the many who tuned in to watch the County Armagh native do the business in Olympic record-setting fashion.
“I watched it on TV, it was amazing,” McIlroy said. “The last 100 he swam was incredible. Unbelievable. Apparently, I haven’t seen it, but apparently his 1500 is better than his 800. So, I am excited for Sunday as well to see if he can get a second gold.”
McIlroy’s own hopes for Gold are still alive, but he’ll need to improve his fairways-in-regulation stats if he’s to reel in the early pace setter, Hideki Matsuyam, with reigning Olympic champion and two-time 2024 major winner Xander Schauffele who are one and two on the leaderboard at -8 and -6 respectively.
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