Rory McIlroy shrugs off weight of expectation on opening day

“They all want him to win it,” a marshal exclaimed as McIlroy stepped onto the 7th tee to another chorus of cheers. He was not wrong, the swell of support was relentless.

He proceeded to crush his drive down the middle of the fairway once again, pitch it to eight feet and roll in another birdie putt in almost identical fashion to the previous hole.

With momentum on his side and an enthusiastic grandstand behind him, McIlroy was clearly in the mood to shoot low and was frustrated with ‘only’ hitting the green on the 8th.

Par followed before he took out his driver for the very reachable 9th. “Surely that’s too much club”, whispered one fan. It wasn’t but he had to settle for another par and an outward 32.

Meanwhile, Schauffele and Morikawa were relegated to playing second fiddle for much of the front nine despite the former recovering from bogeying the 1st to go out in two-under.

The reigning champion was uncharacteristically inconsistent, with two birdies cancelling out two bogeys on the front before repeating that pattern again for a level-par 72.

Schauffele quietly went about his business and threatened to overshadow McIlroy with birdies on 12 and 14, only for a bogey on the notorious 17th to result in a three-under 69.

There was also a setback for McIlroy on the 13th, unable to capitalise on a moment of fortune after his approach avoided the bunker, but it was sandwiched by two more birdies.

An excellent up-and-down on the Road Hole saved par - a result McIlroy said he would gladly take earlier in the week - before he arrived on a wave of roars to the 18th tee.

He then put the icing on the cake in style on the last. An iron was enough to reach the green of the 356-yard hole before two-putting to post a six-under-par 66.

In many ways, it was an uneventful round from McIlroy - he even described it as “boring” after signing his card - but he will undoubtedly take that for his remaining three rounds. 

This is a player at the peak of his powers right now. If he continues to nonchalantly shrug off the pressure, a second Claret Jug could be coming his way. Expectation, what expectation?

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