Rory McIlroy shrugged off two closing bogeys on the opening day of the US Open and was pleased with his overall effort as he left Shinnecock Hills still standing after a one-under 69.
It leaves McIlroy one shot behind early leader Sam Stevens on a day where 30mph gusts saw Shinnecock give the players a harsh welcome on Thursday. The 2011 champion started well however, with birdies on the 11th and 12th to take the early co-lead and after bogeys on the 13th and par-5 16th saw him turn in level-par he rode some back nine momentum with a birdie on 3 and an eagle on the par-5 5th to briefly roar two shots clear.
McIlroy got scrappy coming in and let shots go on the 8th and 9th but it was a solid opener on a day where he hit 10 of 14 fairways and 12 of 18 greens.
“I think with the conditions today, anything under par or anything around even par is a good score,” McIlroy said. “It was a day to really just keep yourself in the tournament and not shoot yourself out of it, which is exactly what I did eight years ago here,” added the 37-year-old who opened with an 80 to miss the cut here in 2018.
“So sort of went out with the mindset that pars were going to be good, and if you could pick up a couple of birdies here and there, that’s always a bonus. But really just minimising the mistakes. I did that for the most part today.
“Look, the greens are pretty slow and quite receptive,“ McIlroy said.
“I think they need to be at this point. It’s a challenging golf course already, and you put 30-mile-an-hour winds on top of it, it tests the best players in the world pretty well.
“Yeah, I think they were prudent with the course setup, and they made sure to — I think especially with starting with 156 the first two days, you just want to get everyone around without too much issue.
“They’ve set the course up for that, at least today.“
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