HAMILTON, Ontario – Rory McIlroy celebrated his caddie Harry Diamond’s 40th birthday Wednesday and the Northern Irishman admitted to having “a couple of glasses of wine.” He additionally admitted the celebration was at the least partially liable for his sluggish begin on Day 1 on the RBC Canadian Open, but it surely was a brief setback.
McIlroy closed with a bogey-free 66 and was in a tie for third place when he accomplished his morning spherical at Hamilton Golf & Nation Membership, the place he gained his first of two Canadian Open titles in 2019.
“I hadn’t seen the again 9. Solely performed the entrance 9 within the pro-am, so I used to be form of comfortable sufficient to get out of there in even par and never make a bogey,” McIlroy stated. “However as soon as I acquired that 9 holes out of the way in which I knew there have been some probabilities on that entrance facet and performed most likely a lot better on that entrance facet. 4 birdies there, no bogeys was an excellent day’s work.”
McIlroy birdied the primary, fifth, seventh and eighth holes due to a predictably elegant ball-striking spherical. He was second for the day in strokes gained: tee to inexperienced and first in strokes gained: method.
It was a very encouraging spherical contemplating that McIlroy spent final week in Italy at a buddy’s marriage ceremony and solely hit about 150 golf balls on Sunday earlier than flying to Canada to arrange.
“Not that I really feel rusty, I really feel like I’ve performed sufficient golf to maintain myself [in form],” he stated, “however final week was an excellent week to only reset and form of begin once more.”
