Rory McIlroy has a disastrous homecoming at Open Championship

Native son Rory McIlroy, playing in the Open Championship at home in Northern Ireland, shot an opening round eight-over 79 in Thursday’s opening round at Royal Portrush

Rory McIlroy began this week looking forward to playing the Open Championship in his native country for the first time. Barring a great round tomorrow, he’ll end it by heading back to America much too soon after a disastrous opening round.

The Open Championship is being played at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland for the first time since 1951. McIlroy, who grew up just 60 miles from the course in Holyrood, has great memories of this place. It was here, as a 16-year-old amateur in 2005, that he set the course record by shooting 61. Those fond memories, however, probably won’t include Thursday’s round.

McIlroy began the Open Championship by hooking his opening tee shot well left with an iron, striking a spectator and breaking her phone. Forced to take a penalty stroke for hitting out of bounds, McIlroy’s third shot was again pulled left into thick gorse bushes. He took an unplayable lie from there and finally chipped on to the green with his sixth shot. But he missed a short putt, settling for a quadruple-bogey eight to begin the championship.

McIlroy dropped another shot at the par-three third hole to fall to five-over, but he then showed signs of turning things around. He holed a long birdie putt at the ninth hole, his second birdie in three holes, and received a boisterous ovation from the crowd hoping to lead on their native son.

From there, though, the round was only going to get worse. He found the green on the par-three 16th with his tee shot but left his birdie putt well short. He then missed a three-footer for par, then, trying to play too quickly, missed the comebacker for bogey. He finally tapped in for a double bogey to fall back to five-over. At the closing hole he made a triple-bogey, shooting an eight-over 79, or 18 shots worse than he did as a teenager. McIlroy thought the course was playing much as it did back then during his practice rounds, but he didn’t play like it today.

“I’ve played well here before. I know what I’m doing around here,” he said on Wednesday. “I was worried. I got here last Saturday thinking the course is going to change, the setup for an Open might be different. Then when I got here I was like, it’s still the same place.”

The round was McIlroy’s highest score at the Open Championship since also opening with a 79 in 2013 at Muirfield. He’s currently in 142nd place, 12 shots behind leader Shane Lowry. The 2014 champion has put together one of the best records at the Open in recent years, finishing inside the top-5 in each of his last four appearances.

Lowry, an Irish native, shot an opening 67 on Thursday to lead the early starters at four-under. Four-time major champion Brooks Koepka is three-under for his first 12 holes and is part of a large group a shot back that also includes Webb Simpson and Sergio Garcia.

McIlroy wasn’t the only marque player to struggle in the morning wave. Phil Mickelson shot five-over while defending champion Francesco Molinari and U.S. Open champion Gary Woodland shot three-over. Tiger Woods is also at three-over early in his round.