Rory McIlroy's bid to secure a fifth Major title - six years after his last - got off to a fine start yesterday, as he shot an opening round of 67 on the first day of the 2020 US Open at Winged Foot. McIlroy's three under par round leaves him in a share of fifth place,two strokes behind leader Justin Thomas, who took advantage of surprisingly favourable scoring conditions and opened with an eye-catching 65. Matthew Wolff, Thomas Pieters and Patrick Reed - who enjoyed a hole-in-one on the seventh - are a shot off the lead. The rest of the Irish contingent in New York struggled however, with Shane Lowry and Graeme McDowell both shooting 76s and amateur James Sugrue a 78 - all three will have work to do to make the cut. Lowry's second round gets underway at 12.45pm today, while McIlroy's group and Thomas's group - which also contains Tiger Woods - tee off simultaneously on the first and 10th at 6.27pm. You can follow all of the second day's action via the Irish Times liveblog today, with John O'Sullivan starting at around 1pm before Ruaidhrí Croke guides you deep into the night.
There was to be no fairytale in Tallaght last night, as Shamrock Rovers were beaten 2-0 by AC Milan in the Europa League qualifiers. Zlatan Ibrahimovic opened the scoring for the visitors after 23 minutes, with Hakan Canhanoglu's second half strike putting the game to bed. Afterwards, boss Stephen Bradley paid tribute to his side's efforts: "We have created three really, really good chances against a top team and when you consider the quality of the players and the intensity they play at, I thought we were outstanding." Elsewhere Dundalk progressed thanks to a 1-0 win over Inter Club d'Escalades in Andorra, while Tottenham scraped past Lokomotiv Plovdiv - Jose Mourinho's side 2-1 winners in Bulgaria.
Leinster take on Saracens in the Champions Cup quarter-finals at the Aviva Stadium tomorrow, a week on from their Pro14 final victory over Ulster. And John O'Sullivan has picked out one heavyweight match-up to look forward to in Dublin - the battle of the number eights, Jack Conan and Billy Vunipola. Meanwhile Ulster centre James Hume has praised the impact of Dan McFarland ahead of Sunday's crunch trip to play Toulouse. He said: "Dan is great. He comes off with a lot of quotes and a lot of book references, a lot of documentary references so I feel like that's why he's so knowledgeable." Both Leinster and Ulster will announce their teams for the weekend at midday today, in the meantime you can find a full guide to his weekend's European action, including television details, here.
The FAI are on the verge of unveiling a new chief executive, with former English FA commercial director Jonathan Hill set to take up the role. Olympic Federation of Ireland president Sarah Keane had been the favourite to fill the permanent vacancy after Gary Owens pulled out of the running, but Hill has been selected for the job.
And Sam Bennett looks destined to finish this year's Tour de France wearing the green jersey - the Irish rider now leads Peter Sagan by 52 points after yesterday's 18th stage, which was won by Michal Kwiatkowski from Poland. Meanwhile Johnny Watterson has praised the idyllic, therapeutic nature of watching the Tour - but he writes: "It's cynical stuff but to ask whether a bowl of pasta and a leg rub is enough to get them over a mountain the next day is what comes from a legacy of epic forgery."
