Rory McIlroy has made an effort to see more of the Olympic Games outside of the golf following his first venture in Tokyo 2020 three years ago, when Covid ensured athletes and fans did not travel around the city.
The world number three, who played with world number one Scottie Scheffler and world number four Ludvig Aberg, shot three-under par 68 for his first round at Golf National on the outskirts of Paris. The clubhouse leader is Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama on eight under.
McIlroy, who called his round solid, has been to the tennis at Roland Garros to see the current Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz and multiple Grand Slam winner Rafa Nadal lose their doubles match, and also watched fellow Northern Irish athlete Daniel Wiffen win gold in the swimming pool.
“I got to my first event last night watching Rafa and Carlos Alcaraz play doubles,” said McIlroy in his first competitive round since The Open. “I never watched Carlos play live in person before. I was really excited for that, excited to see Rafa as well.
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“I’d never watched him play on clay before. That was cool to see. The atmosphere there was electric when they started to make that little fightback in the second set. That was cool.”
Wiffen, who broke the Olympic record in his first event in the 800m, grew up not too far from McIlroy’s home in Holywood, just outside Belfast.
“I watched it on TV. It was amazing,” said McIlroy of Wiffen’s swim. “The last 100m he swam was incredible. Unbelievable. Apparently, I haven’t seen it, but apparently his 1,500m is better than his 800m, so excited for Saturday as well to see if he can get a second gold.”
McIlroy will be back in action at 11.06am on Friday morning Irish time.
