Rory McIlroy carded his first over-par round since the third round of the PGA Tour’s Tour Championship as Royal Melbourne proved a tough opponent for the world number two in the opening round of the Crown Australian Open, but the seven-time Harry Vardon Trophy winner was happy to “limit the damage.”
Making his first competitive start in Australia since 2014 when he returned as defending champion having take down Adam Scott in a thrilling finish the year prior, this was McIlroy’s first time playing the championship at Royal Melbourne which last hosted it 34 years ago.
“It’s tricky. Very, very tricky,” he said
“Greens are getting firm. It was a good thing they didn’t cut them today, it would’ve been unplayable.
“I felt like I could have shot under-par or shot something in the 60s but it doesn’t look like anyone’s going to get too far away today.
“So I limited the damage and hopefully conditions are a little better over the next few days and could make a run.
“I think the putter was hard and then it’s just hard to get the ball close.
“When you can’t get it that close and then you’re just trying to two-putt those sort of longer putts, it’s hard to make up any ground.
“There’s a lot of crosswinds and sometimes the wind’s so strong, you feel like you can’t start it far enough in one direction.”
Playing in the marquee group alongside Scott and Min Woo Lee, the 7:05am tee time didn’t deter the locals and the galleries were packed as they made their way to the first tee – the 10th – and McIlroy got off to the perfect start when he rolled in a birdie putt.
But it was very much an up-and-down day for Rory, as he carded just three pars on his first nine and made the turn at level-par.
He was still level standing on the fifth tee, having bookended back-to-back birdies on two and three with bogeys on one and four, but his sixth bogey of the day – which came on the seventh – was accompanied by four pars and he got into the clubhouse at +1 and tied for 57th.
“I need to putt better,” he declared. “I can feel myself struggling on the greens a little bit Tuesday and Wednesday just to see reads, they’re quite tricky to read in spots, so I struggled with the putting early on today.
“Holed some good ones. I think I was better from outside 25 feet than I was from inside five, so work on that a little bit.
“I made enough birdies, but I just need to limit the mistakes a little bit but it felt OK. It was good to get one round done and not feel like I’m too far back.”
McIlroy finds himself seven shots behind the trio of Elvis Smylie, Carlos Ortiz and Ryan Fox, who are two clear of their nearest challengers, and just 41 of the 156-man field are in red figures after the opening 18 holes.
He was nevertheless impressed by the great turnout for the early start and is hoping to give the fans plenty to cheer about over the coming days.
“Some crowds for seven o’clock in the morning,” he said. “It was great. It was a wonderful atmosphere to play in.
“Obviously playing with Adam in Min Woo too. Yeah, it was unbelievable. It was really cool to see how many people were lining the fairways and framing the greens and stuff, so yeah, it was cool.
“It’s amazing. I think the welcome has been so warm and yeah, it’s been a pleasure to be here and hopefully I could just play a little bit better over the next three days.”
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