Rory McIlroy admitted “too many silly errors” prevented him from making a powerful begin to the Open Championship as a rollercoaster opening spherical of 72 left him seven pictures behind shock chief Jackson Suber.
Hoping so as to add a second Claret Jug to the second Masters title he claimed in April, McIlroy endured a irritating day on Royal Birkdale’s greens throughout a spherical that featured 4 birdies and 6 bogeys.
The six-time main winner missed three four-foot putts within the area of 4 holes from the seventh earlier than mixing three birdies with two bogey sixes over his ultimate six holes.
“The 2 bogeys on the par-fives weren’t nice and I struggled the primary two holes to get the velocity of the greens,” mentioned the 2014 Open champion, who felt he drove the ball effectively after driving the inexperienced of the 415-yard ninth gap.
“I felt like they had been very inconsistent, simply because some elements of the greens are nonetheless alive and rising and different elements are actually useless.”
McIlroy, who completed joint fourth on the 2017 Open at Birkdale, added: “[I] form of felt like I received it going slightly bit, however simply too many silly errors. However each time I made a silly mistake, fortunately I made a birdie to form of preserve myself in it.
“[I’m] not too distant. Hopefully we’ll get the higher circumstances [on Thursday] and possibly the greens are slightly bit smoother within the morning.”
