ROYAL BIRKDALE — You win or you learn.
It’s a sporting cliché, but one that athletes find comforting as it allows them to put a positive spin on bad days at the office.
The other cliché in play here is that you cannot win the title on the first day of a major golf championship, but you can certainly lose it – and Rory McIlroy spent most of the first day of the Open Championship fulfilling both aphorisms: learning an awful lot and desperately trying not to lose his shot at the title.
His well-received birdie at the last added a little shine to a battling day, and somehow a score of +2 and a gap of only seven shots, rather than eight, to bolt-from-the-blue leader Jackson Suber seemed manageable.
It is one of the great privileges in sports journalism to watch the very best up close. But the day I spent watching McIlroy, one of the best to swing a golf club this century, was more soap opera than heroic epic.
Driving is the strong suit
“Rory, you’re too f**king strong,” yelled a fan after McIlroy bombed a drive 389 yards onto the green at the par-four ninth.
He had delighted the spectators on the tee when he ditched his iron for “the big stick”, drawing an excited roar.
The intention was clear.Rory McIlroy taking on Royal Birkdale. pic.twitter.com/ZtK229htG2
— The Open (@TheOpen) July 16, 2026Caddie Harry Diamond had initially handed him an iron, only to then switch it out for driver and watch an enormous downwind drive that set up his first birdie of the round. It looked that might be the start of the comeback, but he never got back to one over par again all day.
Rory was the big draw of the day
It had all started smoothly enough, McIlroy in a typically blockbuster grouping with Matt Fitzpatrick and Xander Schauffele, followed by thousands of fans and a significant cluster of reporters, camera operators, scorers, referees, and almost as many marshals and stewards to keep them out of the way.
The crowds following McIlroy’s psychodrama remain huge (Photo: Getty)Once the three golfers had walked down each fairway, a small army would follow behind – including this correspondent.
The wind was not in his sails – at all
He was probably cursing his luck a little at having been drawn in the late wave of players, the early birds having benefited from calm conditions, and what wind there was came from the same direction as it had all week. By lunchtime, the breeze had turned around and freshened up, rendering much of the strategy gleaned from his practice rounds with Shane Lowry – played competitively for significant sums of money, it is understood – useless.
And it was refreshing that for all the golf tech in the world, caddies still throw grass in the air to make sure they know which way the wind is blowing.
The putting is making him angry
But really caddie Diamond’s wind judgement was not the problem, because McIlroy’s struggles were with the putter.
He finished the day ranked 148th in putting and 152nd “around the green”, a damning indictment of his ability with any short club. He missed three putts inside five feet in the space of four holes, including four-footer for birdie which lipped out and left McIlroy staring and muttering at the whole for the best part of a minute.
McIlroy’s anger got the better of him at the 17th (Photo: PA)He was clearly seething with rage. Conversation with his caddie became limited and his gait lacked the bounce that seasoned observers know signals he’s playing well. After putting started to infect his swing, leading to another missed green on the 12th, he handed off the club without a word and grinned darkly.
Just a few holes later, he thumped the Birkdale turf in fury with his wedge after a flop shot ended up in the bunker, another shot he knew would be dropped.
Partner Fitzpatrick fared little better
It did not help that his Ryder Cup team-mate Matt Fitzpatrick was having a similarly frustrating day. His arms were flapping around constantly between shots as he told his own caddie about how unfair the course was playing, how bad the lies had been, and how poorly he was striking the ball.
“Fitzy” – as all the crowd called him – is the best irons player in the world but was outside the top 60 on approach shots on Thursday, and finished the day with the same score as McIlroy, shaking his head in frustration as the pair shook hands on 18.
McIlroy and Fitzpatrick (right) were all smiles to start with – but it didn’t last (Photo: Getty)The Northern Irishman had some words of wisdom for him as they walked off though, and Fitzpatrick will probably be glad of his company again on Friday.
They will both be glad of the early start too, when they should get the better of the conditions, with wind expected later and McIlroy complaining that the greens were well-trod by later in the day, spike marks making the surface uneven.
A man for the big moment
One thing that does not seem to change though is McIlroy’s love of the big crowd. His name was screamed progressively louder as the day got older and the beer supplies were challenged.
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James Gray: I followed Bryson DeChambeau for two days – his behaviour surprised me Ian Baker-Finch: I won the Open at Birkdale. Six years later I was sobbing in the locker roomAnd perhaps it is coincidence, but he made birdies on the two booziest holes of the day: the brand-new par-three 15th, which has been built quite deliberately in front of a three-storey hospitality centre, and the famous 18th, where he received a hugely warm reception at nearly 9pm, and where his head drooped in relief when he sank a putt for a three.
It was not a classic McIlroy day, but in so many ways it was. Four birdies, six bogeys, and work left to do: it wouldn’t be Rory without a little drama.
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