The Open 2019: Rory McIlroy ‘would like to punch himself’ after disastrous first-round at Royal Portrush

The favourite finished with a calamitous eight-over-par that leaves him all but out of contention

Rory McIlroy said he felt like “punching himself” after a disastrous eight-over-par 79 left the Northern Irishman in danger of missing the cut at The Open.

The pre-tournament favourite’s homecoming started in miserable fashion after his tee-shot skewed out of bounds on the first hole en route to a quadruple-bogey eight.

After mounting a faint glimmer of a fightback with two birdies before the turn, a three-putt from seven feet on the 16th and a triple-bogey to finish left him without any hopes of contention.

“I would like to punch myself,” McIlroy said afterwards. ”I made a couple of stupid mistakes. I was pretty nervous on the first tee and hit a bad shot. I showed some resilience in the middle of the round and was trying to fight back into the championship but then I finished off poorly as well.”

Despite admitting to feeling added nerves on the first-tee, McIlroy insisted he doesn’t believe the weight of expectation was the cause of the poor performance.

“I don’t think it was a factor,” McIlroy continued ruefully. “I was nervous on the first tee, but not because of that, nervous because it’s an Open. I usually get nervous on the first-tee anywhere, regardless of where it is. Maybe a little more so today but I don’t think it was that.”

“It’s disappointing, I’d be disappointed regardless, whether it was here, St Andrews, Birkdale or any of the other tournaments or majors. I’m disappointed, but at the end of the day, I’m still the same person. I’ll go back and see my family and my friends and hopefully they won’t think any less of me after a performance like that today. I’ll dust myself off and try to come back tomorrow.”

Rory McIlroy reacts to a missed putt (Reuters) (REUTERS)

In particular, McIlroy lamented his “inexcusable” missed putt on the 16th, where a casual tap-in lipped out of the hole from inside a foot and sparked the unravelling that would ultimately reduce him to a side note of this Open Championship.

“The first hole was a rough start,” McIlroy said. “I think I showed some good resilience after that, I played the next holes in one-under-par, and then really what I’m disappointed about is I undid all that great work on the last few holes.

“Lapses of concentration like that, I feel like I’ve done a good job over the last few years of being more with it and realising, ‘ok just keep a cool head’. When I look back that’s what I’ll be most disappointed with