{"id":11775,"date":"2026-09-11T14:08:38","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T14:08:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/11775\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T14:08:38","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T14:08:38","slug":"rory-mcilroy-content-to-be-in-contention-after-testing-first-day-at-irish-open-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/11775\/","title":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy content to be in contention after testing first day at Irish Open \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Rory McIlroy was glad to have been able to \u201chang in there\u201d after battling blustery conditions at the Amgen Irish Open to sit four shots off the clubhouse lead following a one-under-par opening round.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Gusts of up to 35 miles per hour saw balls oscillating on greens, with Frenchman Frederic Lacroix seeing his blown off the putting surface at the 13th, but he had fortunately already marked so was able to replace it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">All of which made for slow going at Trump International Golf Links and Hotel in Doonbeg during Thursday\u2019s first round.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Defending Champion Rory McIlroy cards an opening round 69 (-1) \ud83e\udd1d#AmgenIrishOpen pic.twitter.com\/4py4JCNtUZ<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) September 10, 2026<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">As the day wore on, a course-record 65 from Chilean Joaquin Niemann looked increasingly good.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Mikel Arteta &#x2018;very surprised&#x2019; by Gabriel Jesus&#x2019;s criticism after Arsenal exit\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/GEP6IYU4ZZOHTNAIRX3HSHXGNQ.jpg\"  width=\"800\" height=\"450\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Tiernan Lynch retains faith ahead of HNK Rejika home leg and urges his players to keep their confidence that they can stay in the hunt for European football\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/6ODNTL6LMFEGXCCKYKIVBL74NY.jpg\"  width=\"800\" height=\"450\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Having reached the turn at two under, Niemann had four successive birdies from the 14th to put him in contention for a 30,000 US dollar (\u00a322,000) bonus for the lowest round of the week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Poland\u2019s Adrian Meronk, who has played 15 holes, Austrian Maximilian Steinlechner (through 13) and Renato Paratore (through 12) all later made a challenge for the top of the leaderboard at three under before play was suspended just ahead of 8pm.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Home favourite Shane Lowry, who won the event as a 22-year-old amateur in Baltray, kept himself in the mix, safely in the clubhouse at three under alongside South African Shaun Norris.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\ud83d\udcc8 Shane Lowry makes an opening round statement at home \ud83c\udfe1 #AmgenIrishOpen pic.twitter.com\/e2hII7SVD8<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Amgen Irish Open (@IrishOpen_) September 10, 2026<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Long waits on many tee boxes were commonplace, but McIlroy, who won the event at the K Club last year, started with two birdies in his first four holes before getting to the turn in a two-under 34 \u2013 in three-and-a-half hours.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">After missing a four-foot birdie chance at the first, he holed a 14-footer at the second, splashed out of a bunker to three feet at the par-five fourth for his second birdie, but missed from 10ft at the seventh for a third.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">McIlroy found the fairway bunker on the 13th and a missed 10-foot putt saw him take a double-bogey hit before a fine approach to the 15th helped quickly pull a stroke back.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The world number two, though, could not make the most of what proved limited opportunities over the closing run, narrowly missing a lengthy birdie attempt on the 18th, and he will return on Friday morning hoping to improve along with the weather forecast.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Rory McIlroy felt conditions had made low scoring difficult\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/EQW6YJJ5EZO6HKJC34ESO5TWKI.jpg\"  width=\"800\" height=\"543\"\/>Rory McIlroy felt conditions had made low scoring difficult (Brian Lawless\/PA) <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cThere were a couple of things that were tough today. Obviously the wind and the strength of the wind was one thing and then the pace of play,\u201d McIlroy said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cThis course isn\u2019t conducive to sort of letting you get in a flow. Especially the first two days with so many people in the field, there is a lot of stopping and starting.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s hard when you are playing a round of golf and it takes six hours, it\u2019s hard to get into the rhythm of things, but felt like I did a good job.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cAfter making the double bogey on 13, I was just trying to get those two shots back by the end of the day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Rory McIlroy had to battle the elements through a tough opening day\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/EKTMEA56YRKOJHNUDHHVGDBUQE.jpg\"  width=\"800\" height=\"518\"\/>Rory McIlroy had to battle the elements through a tough opening day (Brian Lawless\/PA) <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">McIlroy added: \u201cI hung in there, shot under par, and at least don\u2019t feel like I am out of the tournament. A good day tomorrow gets me right back in it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Lowry missed out on the FedEx Cup play-offs but is relishing the chance to make a challenge through the weekend back on home soil.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cI feel like I am doing a lot of things right on and off the course. I am very hopeful that that pays me off at some stage,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Northern Ireland\u2019s Tom McKibbin \u2013 playing alongside European team captain Luke Donald and Alex Fitzpatrick \u2013 finished in a group at two under, having made a bogey on the final hole.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy was glad to have been able to \u201chang in there\u201d after battling blustery conditions at the&hellip;","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11776,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"csco_display_header_overlay":false,"csco_singular_sidebar":"","csco_page_header_type":"","csco_page_load_nextpost":"","csco_post_video_location":[],"csco_post_video_location_hash":"","csco_post_video_url":"","csco_post_video_bg_start_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_end_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_volume":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[15,3411,17,1163,257],"class_list":["post-11775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rory-mcilroy","tag-golf","tag-international","tag-rory-mcilroy","tag-scotland","tag-uk","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@fogolf\/117252804008953018","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}