A warning for time may have helped spoil a hot start for Rory McIlroy at the Irish Open in Straffan, Ireland Thursday, as the native of Northern Ireland finished his day with two bogeys across his final three holes.
Instead of being in a tie for 12th, a few shots off the pace of co-leaders France’s Romain Langasque, Spain’s Nacho Elvira and Denmark’s Thorbjorn Olesen (6 under), McIlroy sits in a tie for 50th at 1 under following his first round at the K Club.
McIlroy wasn’t shy about attributing his finish to the officiating, citing a lack of “common sense” when it comes to issuing pace warnings.
A five-time Major championship winner (including this year’s Masters), McIlroy attributed some of the difficulty in assessing time warnings to the size of the crowds his group attracts. As a headliner, he not only gets huge crowds from fans, but also several camera crews, which he feels can gum up the works.
“I feel like it always happens,” McIlroy said. “And I don’t think they use sort of common sense in terms of, well, ‘of course we’re going to lose ground because we’re going to have to wait on crowds and wait on the two camera crews that are out there.’ They should give us a little bit of leeway.”
McIlroy’s playing group was put on the clock early on in their round by one official, then again put on the clock for the final three holes by a separate official. It was then that McIlroy began to struggle, firing a bogey on the par-4 seventh and another on the par-3 eighth before he managed to settle for par on No. 9.
In contrast, he posted one bogey with four birdies over his other half round.
“In all honesty, I felt a little rushed out there for the last 12 holes,” he said. “There’s just a lot more going on with our group than any of the other groups on the course.”
