Northern Eire’s Rory McIlroy blamed a “pedestrian” begin as he completed 5 pictures off the lead after the primary spherical of the Houston Open in Texas.
The world quantity two carded an opening-round 70, hitting two birdies and two bogeys on the Memorial Park course to go away him 5 strokes off early joint-leaders Keith Mitchell, Taylor Pendrith, Alejandro Tosti and Ryan Gerard.
McIlroy, who’s hoping to finish a profession Grand Slam by successful the Masters subsequent month, opted to play in Houston for the primary time since 2014 in preparation for Augusta.
“Somewhat pedestrian I suppose is an effective approach to describe it,” McIlroy stated.
“Made a couple of par saves early on that I wanted to after which had fairly a couple of probabilities on the second 9 there that I did not convert.
“Yeah, form of story of two halves. I felt like I used to be scrambling for probably the most half on the primary 9 after which I really feel like I left a pair on the market on the final 9.”
Rain and wind made circumstances troublesome on the course whereas darkness pressured play to be suspended at 7.28pm native time with numerous gamers unable to complete their spherical.
