& # 039; Some of the things McIlroy did were embarrassing for a player in his class. & # 039;

The Open 2019: Watch McIlroy's nightmare, while the first quadruples the bogeys

Half an hour in his opening round at Royal Portrush and Rory McIlroy had already knocked a ball out of favor, Anna had already cracked out of Bangor & # 39; s mobile phone screen with his quirky opening tee-shot, already had an approach shot in a bush before he dropped a penalty and played a four-fold bogey 8.

As he walked from the first green to the second tee, the mood changed to Portrush. He had played a hole and he was already eight shots behind. It was 10.30 a.m. on what was to be one of the greatest days of his professional career, spent in the bosom of his home country on a golf course that he had only happy memories of, but how quickly it turned out. From Portrush to creepy silence in 30 minutes

Along the route of the second hole you could hear chatter behind the ropes. "I don't believe this," said one of his supporters. "I've never seen anything like it," said another. "Nightmare," said a third. The crowd had come to cheer him on, not to feel sorry for him, but what else could they do?

A missed tiddler on the 16th green cost him two more shots. A failed hack of heavy rough at 18 and a wild approach to the green cost him another three. McIlroy has taken photos of major championships in the past, he has questioned his courage, his ability to make his way through difficult times under the microscope, but the context here was everything.

More misery for McIlroy with triple bogey on hole 18

This was not only a Portrush Open, it was his Portrush Open. His place. Are people. The course he has known since he was a child. The location for which he campaigned. The one who put a smile on his face every time his name was mentioned. He shot 79. South Africa & Dylan Frittelli, with a world ranking of 92, beat him with 11 shots. The Frenchman Romain Langasque, the 104th best player, beat him with 10.

"At the end of the day I am still the same person," McIlroy said afterwards. "I'm going back and see my family, see my friends, and hopefully they don't think less of me after such a performance."

Of course they won't do that, but that's not the point. Five years after winning his last major McIlroy now has an all-powerful fight to make his hands on Friday. With the Masters he finished eight times behind the winner Tiger Woods this year. At the American PGA he was nine after Brooks Koepka. At the US Open he was eight behind Gary Woodland. He now loses majors with similar numbers with which he won them in his early days as a golf king.

Those memories are far away and you really have to wonder if he has the capacity to bring them back. The possibility? That's in him, okay. But many boys have the ability nowadays. It is the other things that separate them from each other. The excavation, the stalky focus, the refusal to aggravate a bad day.

& # 39; Un priced & # 39; miss on 16th irritates McIlroy

Since Mcllroy & # 39; s last major win, the American PGA in 2014, Jordan Spieth has won three majors and Brooks Koepka has won four. Twelve different players have won majors, of which 11 have won their first major. The brutal reality of the game now is that these things will be harder to win by the year as standard rockets and the list of contenders grow.

McIlroy has been caught up on both sides. Koepka, the cold-blooded killer he is, turns up and puts himself back into battle. McIlroy shows up and talks about his failure to trust the wind on an 18-inch putt. We are talking about different animals here. If everything goes McIlroy & # 39; s going, he is the most natural and the most brilliant of them all. If things go against him, he can be used just like he was on Thursday. Oh so ordinary.

He said on Wednesday that having The Open in Portrush was unreal, but nothing was as unreal as that opening gate disaster. Why did he leave the border on the left? Because he had crossed the border the previous day in practice and he still had that mistake in mind.

What was doing beyond the borders on the right? He didn't explain it. Two shots from the same tee to a generous fairway and he doesn't like either of them? It is impossible to know whether that is the pressure of the week or not. Regardless of the explanation, it is not good. Some of the things McIlroy did were embarrassing for a player in his class.

He missed a babysitter at 16. It was a moment that you looked away. The explanation was detailed, as was the McIlroy standard. He talked a lot better than he played in his opening round.

"I should have relied on the wind," he said of a putt he could have taken with his cap on a normal day. "I'm talking to myself about the last putt (his third on that green). It's not like my head goes to Kelly tonight. I am criticizing myself about the putt I just hit (and missed) and went to tap on it and not. "

The Open 2019: I have undone all the great work on the last few holes – Mcllroy

All this begged the question, in this murderous competitive era in golf, or when will he ever win one of these things again? In his press conference on the eve of the Open Championship, McIlroy spoke of his intention to enjoy what awaits him in Portrush, to record it, to roll along, to play with a sense of freedom. He said he was going to smell the roses.

That did not sound convincing at the time. It sounded like a man trying to tell things in his head for fear of the huge scope of the opportunity it took over. It sounded like a man who overcompensated. He said he didn't feel he was the center of attention. Given that everyone but everyone wrote and talked about him, we only speculate where that idea came from.

Perhaps from the land of denial. This Open was always about Rory. Even when he signed for a score of eight, it was still about Rory. He has played 18 majors since he won one. Unless he finds his inner child and plays the kind of golf he played when he sets a new course record here as a teenager, he may not be present at the weekend. It was not intended that this was the case.