Rory McIlroy’s roller-coaster Open continues into second round at Royal Portrush

By Carl Markham, PA

Rory McIlroy mixed the majestic with the mediocre as his roller-coaster Open at Royal Portrush continued on the second day.

The Northern Irishman, from an hour down the road in Holywood, began the day three off the lead on one under but had to work hard just to maintain that score through his front nine.

But by the time he turned in a level-par 36 – after two birdies and two bogeys – the gap to the top had stretched to five as 2023 champion Brian Harman had taken advantage of good scoring conditions to reach six under.

McIlroy, last in the field for driving accuracy on Thursday after hitting just two fairways, struggled to recalibrate his radar but that did not prevent him making birdie at the first from 18 feet from the semi-rough.

However, he was a foot from driving out of bounds at the par-five next and had to take an unplayable lie and eventually chipped to seven feet to save par.

The 176-yard third caused him problems as his tee shot caught the bank of a bunker, forcing him to stand in the sand and choke down halfway on the shaft of his wedge with his ball well above him and that resulted in a bogey.

A 348-yard drive and approach to six feet brought a birdie at the next but the driveable par-four fifth caused him problems after pulling his three-wood into a bunker, which produced the response “Don’t go in there. Idiot.”

Another bogey followed and despite hammering a 372-yard drive down the par-five seventh he came up short with his approach, chipped to nine feet but missed the birdie attempt.

He missed fairways at eight and nine, meaning he found only one over his outward half, and it cost him scoring opportunities.

That was not the case for Harman, beginning the day two under, who had three birdies in 10 holes, to hold a one-shot lead over Rasmus Hojgaard and England’s Tyrrell Hatton, who could consider himself unfortunate to only be two under through 10 holes of his round.

His Ryder Cup team-mates Robert MacIntyre and Justin Rose were in the pack on three under; the Scot bogey-free in carding three birdies on his front nine and Englishman Rose, runner up at the Masters and last year’s Open, dropping his first shot of the tournament at the par-three sixth in an outward one-under 35.