Rory McIlroy 10 back, recalibrates Open focus: 'try to make the cut'

Rory McIlroy turned in his worst major tournament round since 2019 and entered the clubhouse trailing leader Justin Thomas by 10 shots after 18 holes at the 152nd Open Championship at Royal Troon Golf Club in Troon, South Ayrshire, Scotland.

Releasing his club and a tee shot that buried in the center of a fairway wall bunker, McIlroy let out an audible reaction and perhaps a call for divine intervention.

"Ah, God," McIlroy said, eventually wrapping up a plus-7 round (78) and a T139 standing on the leaderboard as the afternoon wave hit the course.

"Yeah, difficult day," McIlroy said. "I felt like I did OK for the first part of the round and then missed the green at the Postage Stamp there and left it in and made a double. But still, felt like I was in reasonable enough shape being a couple over through 9, thinking that I could maybe get those couple shots back, try to shoot even par, something like that. Then hitting the ball out of bounds on 11, making a double there. Even though the wind on the back nine was helping, it was a lot off the left. I was actually surprised how difficult I felt like the back nine played. I thought we were going to get it a little bit easier than we did."

McIlroy's first round in a major since a final round meltdown at the U.S. Open stands as his worst score in one of golf's four most prestigious tournaments since 2019, when he recorded a 79 at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland. He entered the week optimistic after a solid showing at the Scottish Open last week.

"I just think that your misses get punished. Your misses get punished a lot more this week than even last week or even, geez, any weeks," McIlroy said. "Whether you miss it in a fairway bunker or even the rough. The rough ... the balls that I hit in the rough today, the lies were pretty nasty."

Cast as one of the favorites this week, McIlroy said he can only focus on Friday and trying to make the cut.

"That's all I can focus on," McIlroy said.

U.S. Open winner Bryson DeChambeau found trouble early and often and is 5 over. He said part of the unique challenge this week is related to cooler temperatures limiting ball speed he normally relies on to shorten courses. At the lengthy par-5 sixth hole, which measured 620 yards, DeChambeau ripped his drive into native grass and hacked his second shot only a few paces forward. All told, he took a double-bogey seven.

It wasn't only the driver that flustered DeChambeau in the wind and cool temps. He said the greens were grabby and treacherous, too.

"That's golf, my man," DeChambeau said. "It's frustrating, but look, at the end of the day it's golf, and I get to go relax and enjoy watching others play in this rain. I'm going to go figure it out."

--Field Level Media