Rory McIlroy struggled to his worst round of the season Thursday in the opening round of the Irish Open. McIlroy, playing in front of a home crowd, shot 9-over 80. The World No. 1 quickly sunk to the bottom of the leaderboard, with half the field still to tee off.
Windswept Royal County Down challenged several players on Thursday, but few struggled as much as McIlroy. The links course flaunts blind approaches and difficult greens.
McIlroy didn’t make one birdie but had nine bogeys. On the positive side, there were no big numbers.
“My poor iron play led to missed greens, which led to giving myself a lot of 8- to 12-footers for pars, and that led to missing all of them,” said McIlroy, who described his play as “worse as I got closer to the green.