SOUTHPORT, England — Rory McIlroy issued no “I’m so bad at golf” declarations on the course this time.
The puzzled looks, shakes of the head and sagging shoulders said it all Thursday at Royal Birkdale Golf Club.
McIlroy was just 10 holes into his bid to win the British Open for the second time — his 2014 title came at Royal Liverpool — and the 37-year-old from Northern Ireland was veering dangerously close to playing himself out of contention at the year’s final major championship tournament for men’s golf.
Missing one putt from four feet wasn’t necessarily unusual. But doing it three times? In the space of four holes?
That trio of bewildering close-range mishaps — on Nos. 7, 8 and 10 — came either side of McIlroy driving the green to make birdie on the 415-yard No. 9. Go figure.
And it pretty much summed up the No. 2 player in the Official World Golf Ranking’s wild late-afternoon ride to a 2-over-par 72 that included six bogeys and left him seven shots off the first-round lead, held surprisingly by Jackson Suber, a 26-year-old American outside the OWGR’s top 100 and making his British Open debut.
“Just too many stupid mistakes,” McIlroy said — and he was specifically referring to his putting on greens he described as “very inconsistent.”
“I missed a couple early on that looked like they were going to break one way, and they actually went another way, and then when you get the next one, you’re over it and it’s just very hard to trust that the ball is going to do what you think it’s going to do. Then you maybe don’t make quite as committed of a stroke,” said McIlroy, who won his sixth major title when he repeated as the Masters champion in April.
McIlroy arrived at Royal Birkdale after a seventh-place finish Sunday at the Scottish Open, where he went viral by shouting “I’m so bad at golf” after a poor approach shot late in his final round.
The sixth player — and only European — to complete the career Grand Slam rarely hides his emotions, and he cut a frustrated figure for most of his round Thursday, not least when he chipped through the green and into a bunker on the 17th hole, a par-5 layout.
McIlroy managed to splash out to eight feet while having one knee on the ground, but a weakly struck par putt led to another dropped shot.
“It’s just hard to judge the speed sometimes,” he said.
Making a birdie at the tough last hole after a brilliant approach to five feet sparked shouts of “Rory! Rory!” from spectators in the grandstands and at least gave him something to cling to.
He barely raised a smile, though, after plucking the ball out of the cup. One stat spoke volumes: McIlroy ranked 148th in putting in the 156-man field.
McIlroy is playing a reduced schedule in 2026, and this is just his sixth event since the Masters.
A win this weekend would tie him with Jersey’s Harry Vardon as the European men’s golfer with the most career majors.
He already has plenty of work to do, even if he tried to remain positive.
“Hopefully we’ll get the better conditions tomorrow, and maybe the greens are a little bit smoother in the morning,” McIlroy said. “Go out there and shoot a good one and get myself right back in it for the weekend.”