WORK OF START
Magical McIlroy off to the perfect flier as super 66 puts him in pole position to launch an attack on the Claret Jug
RORY McILROY has waited 12 years for another Old Course chance.
It took him less than 12 minutes to show he’s in the mood to take it.
McIlroy called it the fiddliest Open course he’s ever played, yet he got some tune of it. This was Rory at his most majestic. If he stays like this for the next three days, he’ll live up to the favourite tag which he didn’t get the opportunity to do in 2015.
Having started brilliantly to finish third in 2010, McIlroy famously missed out on defending the Claret Jug at the Home of Golf five years on after injuring himself playing football.
The Northern Irishman has had to wait a dozen years for this crack and the minute he rolled home from over 40 feet to birdie the first, he was on it and the St Andrews galleries could barely contain their excitement. Thomas Bjorn reckons he’s got the X Factor and it showed.
McIlroy was magic. His four-under at the turn could easily have been six were it not for shaved holes with putts.
When he struck it well, he was sublime. When he made the odd mistakes, he recovered with the minimum of fuss and the maximum of efficiency and confidence.
It was some contrast as he walked down the 17th in complete control as Tiger Woods walked past him in the other direction going down the second already in turmoil. Ominously for the rest, the 66 he posted is the same number he started with at Hoylake in 2014. And he won.
McIlroy said: “It’s a fantastic start. Just what you hope will happen when you’re starting off your week.
“I did everything that you’re supposed to do around St Andrews.
“I came in here playing well and I’ve played this course well over the years, so I knew if I just went out there and played my game and stuck to my plan, that something like this was possible.
“It’s not like it’s very, very easy out there. It’s tricky. They’re going to hide the pins away and make it very hard to get close to some of them.
“But everything feels very settled. I’ve no real issues with my game. Everything feels quiet, which is a nice way to be and I’m thinking well. When you put yourself in some of these positions, I think that’s important.
“I have confidence and I can go out and play freely and not be, maybe, as timid and tight when starting off.”
McIlroy even coped with a drive at the fifth hitting an ancient stone after he’d stood around waiting for about 15 minutes on the tee.
He smiled: “I was saying to [caddie] Harry that some
poor guy is going to have his ball end up right behind that and I don’t think you get a drop.
“When we were hitting the second shot, I said that it’s so unfair if that does happen, but I didn’t know my ball hit it. It’s funny because we were talking about that. I didn’t even notice.
“It’s quite stop-start but St Andrews is that way. There’s a lot of crisscrossing and waiting on other greens and waiting on greens to clear because of the drivable par-fours.
“Especially the first two days when it’s the full field, it’s to be expected. It is what it is.”
McIlroy knows the pitfalls. Having started with a 63 in 2010, he followed up with an 80 in high winds which blew him off Claret Jug course. Thursday is just the first quarter and he said: “I need to go out on Friday and back up what I just did. That’s important to do.
“I’m pretty good at this game. I think I know what I’m doing. I just needed to take ownership of it again and I think that’s where the freedom comes from.
“There’s always anticipation and wanting to get off to a good start. And I always have first tee nerves.
“But once that first shot’s gone and out of the way, you get into your routine and you’re just playing. And that’s where I feel most comfortable.
“There’s just little parts of the round that shows you where you’re at with everything mentally and physically and I came through all those little tests unscathed. I’m really proud of that.
“So it might have looked easy but there’s certain parts of the round that are challenging.” Challenging, but for a man of his talent, not insurmountable.
McIlroy managed to cope where others didn’t and said: “It’s the fiddliest Open that I’ve played. It’s the only way I can really describe it. It’s just really fiddly out there.
“Fiddly hasn’t really been my forte over the years but I’m hopefully going to make it my forte this week.”
It’s just really fiddly out there. Not my forte over the years RORY McILROY ON THE JOYS OF THE OLD COURSE