They say you can’t win a major on the first day, but you can lose it. Among those in extreme danger of losing the British Open quickly this year was the pretournament favorite, Rory McIlroy, who fired a quadruple-bogey on the first hole on Thursday.
McIlroy was perhaps the most watched golfer in the days leading up to event, both for being one of the best in the world, but also because he is from Northern Ireland and grew up playing at Portrush. He broke the course record there at age 16. There would be no new course record from him on Thursday.