You get nothing easy on this majestic links. Every reward is hard-earned. Every punishment part of the deal. And, for those with eyes on the trophy, the first steps in that quest in the opening round of the Amgen Irish Open were mostly tentative and at times uncertain until the closing stretch towards Slieve Donard brought sanctuary.
As Englishman Todd Clements – a 28-year-old ranked 291st in the world with one DP World Tour win at last year’s Czech Masters on his CV – shot a superbly crafted five-under-par 66 to claim the first-round lead, those packed behind him in close pursuit can entertain genuine ambitions of playing catch-up and more.
One of them, ominously for Clements, was Rory McIlroy.
McIlroy has opted for home comforts, staying with his parents Gerry and Rosie outside Belfast this week rather than the adjacent five-star hotel where the starter’s announcements are prone to drift through the corridors and rooms as a reminder to one and all of the tournament in play.
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“Staying an hour away, I’ve felt detached from the tournament this week, which has been quite a nice thing and I haven’t been so wrapped up in it,” said McIlroy.
So, this time, McIlroy has managed to stay at arm’s length until actually having to put a club in hand. And, unlike the last time in 2015, when as tournament host he opened with an 80 to be a lost cause from the get-go, the world number three brilliantly finished with three straight birdies – on 16-17-18 – to post a three-under-par 68 to get to a share of fourth place, just two strokes behind Clements.
Pádraig Harrington had observed of the challenge and, indeed, the inspiration to be found from the travails of others. “Every time you lifted your head up and looked around, you got some hope because you could see a lot of carnage going on. What’s he doing over there?” said the three-time Major champion of the trouble to be found with the slightest waywardness.
McIlroy, too, acknowledged the stern examination: “It’s a Major championship-calibre golf course. It’s just unfortunate that we don’t have the infrastructure around the golf course to host something like an Open because if we did, it definitely would be able to host an Open Championship. It’s just limited the amount of people you can get in here and logistically it doesn’t quite make sense. But it’s up there with the toughest courses that we play.”
Among those to suffer at the hands of the elements – albeit a crosswind that was less of a torment than experienced in the pro-am days – and the course itself were Thomas Detry, who saw his approach land on the eighth green (his penultimate hole of the round) only for his ball to be blown off into an unplayable lie and run up a quadruple-bogey eight. Ryder Cup player Bob MacIntyre – a two-time winner on the PGA Tour this season – saw his tee-shot on the 15th disappear in the gorse never to be found in running up a triple-bogey seven. MacIntyre’s response was to birdie the 16th and 17th to impressively get back to level par, a 71.
For McIlroy, his own response to adversity was also impressive. After missing a birdie putt from 15 feet on the 13th, which would have moved him to three under on his card, the Co Down man bogeyed the next two holes. But he birdied the last three homes, to great acclaim from the galleries who had traipsed over the sand dunes from start to finish, to get right into the mix.
Unsurprisingly, there was a pep in McIlroy’s step as he removed his cap to acknowledge the crowds gathered around the 18th green and to walk off with a scorecard in hand that contained six birdies and three bogeys.
“Like any links course and with wind like this, especially crosswinds, it’s about managing ball flight and giving yourself enough margin for error so that even if you are a little bit off you’re not getting yourself in huge trouble. And I think I know this place well enough that I know the right side to miss it, and that was one of the things did I well today. Even when I did miss it, I missed it in the right spots where I was able to either get it up-and-down or have a decent next shot or a chance at a next shot,” said McIlroy of his strategic play.
He added: “I think the strategy that you need to play with is a little bit like a Major but Majors obviously bring their own type of pressure as well. But yeah, it’s a great atmosphere out there. It’s a difficult golf course, and you have to have your wits about you.”
McIlroy, as much as anyone, had that focus on day one. Three more to go. And very nicely placed to contend.
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