Every Birdie From Rory McIlroy's Opening Round | 2026 Genesis Scottish Open

Tees it out mighty high. He's going to give it a 90 percent tee shot and that's a little unlucky. He's got a soft bounce for the perfect spot. The lower level pin tucked on the tight right side. Here's a birdie and the first of the day for Rory McIlroy. So back to level par the 2023 Genesis Scottish Open champion. What sort of bounce do you got? He quite likes it. This is his approach at 14. Just a little bump into the slope and up onto the plateau. Really nicely played the short par four. Taken care of with that pitch. And McIlroy for two birdies in three holes and he gets under par. It's heavy on the left. 300 to fly it. Still going up Ken. Now will it stay on the fairway? That's an absolute visit. That's as good as you can get. Gathers from the right of the pin. 80 percent clipped off the top. This is for birdie for McIlroy on 16. Get to two under. Five of seven fairways hit. Down the left half and sneak past the bunker. Easy tiger. The left side does make the approach fractionally easier but not much. Here's a par five. Now we've had a re-routing. One thing that's not changed is McIlroy's irons fly up into the clear blue sky. Now on this occasion. Deadly accurate. That would set up this eagle attempt. Perfect speed and a perfect line. Bingo. Eagle. Three to go. Looks a little anxious. I'm not sure why. I say well over it. Eight yards over it. He's after it. A little lucky carry all the way under the green. I was just wondering if he's going to get a slightly lower one. Knocks it on in two on the par five. A seventh this also for an eagle. Goodness me. Easy now. I think that would have dropped. Well the flag was slightly leaning into him because the breeze is going that way and as I say the flags are like telegraph poles. It's hard to say he's unlucky though isn't it? He's unlucky. Just three wood for McIlroy. Let me keep it up the left side. It should come out on the fairway. Perfect. I'm definitely taking this one on. Only 146 yards. Lovely rhythm. Posing usually means it's good. Stay there now. Okay. Brilliant putt from McIlroy. Five under tied at the top. It's an opening round of 65 which included an eagle, five birdies and two bogeys. Just give us your reflections on your play today. Yeah I thought for the most part I played well. I felt like I drove the ball particularly well and I started to see that at Shinnecock as well a couple of weeks ago. So you know a continuation of putting the ball in play and then once I do that I feel like I can attack courses and I can set up scoring opportunities. I did that today. I played the par five as well. I think I hit all three greens in regulation. One putt drop for eagle and two putt birdies so that always helps the card. But yeah overall good to get my first round of competitive golf on a Lynx golf course. It's obviously a great start to the tournament too. You mentioned your first round. You've only played four tournaments in the last 12 weeks. What are the benefits of playing such a light schedule and what are the challenges? The benefits are seeing my family more, feeling like I have a bit more balance in my life and then the challenges I don't I mean I feel like even though I have played pretty sparsely over this past you know few months the starts of my tournaments have all been really good so you know it's not like I'm coming in and starting slow and you know the little bit of extra practice I think actually helps in some ways and I think one of the other benefits for me like you know I'm nearly 20 years into this and you know I just I need to do everything I can to to keep my enthusiasm as high as possible and playing a lighter schedule definitely does that. You said to me in the past that golf at this level is 75% mental. You played for a decade with the immense pressure of trying to win that next major trying to complete the Grand Slam. You're now facing a decade where all of that has gone away and you're freewheeling. How liberating is that? A decade? Well I hope so. Yeah well we'll see. It is. It's a very liberating feeling but again I can't get complacent and I can't get like I still need to set goals. I still you know Scotty talked about it at Shinnecock a couple weeks ago if you were to go and win the Grand Slam then the goalposts just move and you start to you know figure out what else you want to do and what so to me that's you know I've said this a few times this year I felt like the Grand Slam last year was the destination and I realized it wasn't and it's a continuous journey. It's a journey until you decide one day that you want to step off and do something else but as long as I'm on this journey you know there'll always be goals to achieve. I think you're a pretty dangerous animal in the mindset you're in. Good luck this week. Thank you.