Ror-ing on
And the McIlroy Express is still racing along.
He fizzes a beauty of an approach on the par 5 7th that almost goes straight in for an eagle.
Instead he has a simple tap in for birdie…
And almost misses it!
It just sneaks in the edge of the cup and that’s Rory at -2.
Go Rory!
Masters champ Rory McIlroy is on the charge after a birdie at the fifth to put his Open charge back on track.
The local hero put his opening hole nightmare behind him to go to -1, three shots off the lead.
- T1 – Jacob Skov Olesen -4 (F)
- T1 – Haotong Li -4 (F)
- T1 – Matt Fitzpatrick -4 (F)
- T4 – Matthew Jordan -3 (F)
- T4 – Scottie Scheffler -3 (F)
- T4 – Sadom Kaewkanjana -3 (F)
- T4 – Christiaan Bezuidenhout – 3 (10)
- T4 – Maverick McNealy -3 (9)
- T4 – Tyrrell Hatton -3 (8)
- T4 – Harris English -3 (6)
- T4 – Lucas Glover – 3 (5)
England’s hat-trick
It was good to see Matthew Fitzpatrick and Matthew Jordan making it a hat-trick of English players to shoot sub-70 scores early on, alongside Lee Westwood, writes our man David Facey at Portrush.
You would not have predicted that a few weeks ago.
Fitzpatrick, the 2022 US Open champion, was in despair over the state of his game, while Jordan continued a poor run by missing the cut in two of his last three starts, and failed to make the top 30 in the other.
But Fitzpatrick has clearly found something since squeezing out a top ten at The USPGA, while Jordan is becoming a bit of an Open specialist.
The Merseysider finished in the top ten at his home course, Royal Liverpool, two years ago, and followed up by repeating the feat at Troon.
Can the Liverpool fan make it a hat-trick?
Leaderboard latest
The conditions have become pretty benign.
And Masters champ Rory McIlroy has made a couple of pars and stays at level par after four holes.
Aaron Rai has moved up the leaderboard with four birdies in his opening eight holes.
- T1 – Jacob Skov Olesen -4 (F)
- T1 – Haotong Li -4 (F)
- T1 – Matt Fitzpatrick -3 (F)
- T1 – Aaron Rai – 4 (8)
- T5 – Matthew Jordan -3 (F)
- T5 – Scottie Scheffler -3 (F)
- T5 – Christiaan Bezuidenhout – 3 (8)
- T5 – Lucas Glover – 3 (3)
- T5 – Sadom Kaewkanjana -3 (16)
