Rory McIlroy's up and down day: Making eagle and scrambling for par to stay in US Open hunt

No bother. McIlroy, gripping his wedge in a parted sea of smartphone-clutching fans, soared his third shot over a greenside bunker and made the 18-foot putt for par, pumping his fist as the ball fell in at punishing Shinnecock Hills.

It was an exceptional up and down on No. 4 in a three-hole stretch — birdie, par, eagle — that vaulted the 37-year-old Northern Irishman to the lead at 3 under Thursday in the opening round.

It didn’t last.

McIlroy, who started on the back nine in the U.S. Open’s split-tee format, bogeyed his final two holes to finish with a 1-under 69. But his play on Nos. 3, 4 and 5, kept him near the top of a crowded leaderboard — tied for ninth and five shots behind Wyndham Clark, who will finish his first round Friday morning.

“Overall, a really good day,” McIlroy said. “Obviously, it stings a little bit to finish the way that I did.”

Aside from the occasional miscue — and the one wild approach on No. 4 — McIlroy played smartly on a difficult golf course made all the tougher by howling wind.

Then again, almost any start would've been better than 2018, when McIlroy carded an opening 80 en route to an early exit at the last U.S. Open played at Shinnecock Hills.

“With the conditions today, anything under par or anything around even par is a good score,” McIlroy said. “It was a day to really just keep yourself in the tournament and not shoot yourself out of it, which is exactly what I did eight years ago here.”

He's playing better and, so far, fans are treating him better than the last time he competed on Long Island, last September, when crowds at the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black taunted him with insults and tossed a cup of beer at his wife.

Decked out in a gray sweater, McIlroy nodded to fans shouting “Rory!” as he strode up the fourth fairway and waved to acknowledge their roars after sinking his eagle putt on No. 5. His grouping with Sweden's Ludvig Aberg and England's Tommy Fleetwood drew some of the biggest crowds of the day.

McIlroy took an early lead with birdies on his second and third holes, Nos. 11 and 12, but gave it back with bogeys on No. 13, a short par 4, and No. 16, a 620-yard par 5.

For most of the round, Shinnecock Hills felt more like Northern Ireland than Long Island. After a two-hour fog delay, which pushed back the start of McIlroy's day, overcast skies lingered until early afternoon. At least twice in the heavy gusts, his hat flew off after a swing.

But, as the sun was finally breaking through, so did McIlroy.

At even par through 11 holes, McIlroy launched a 344-yard drive to the center of the fairway at the par 4 third, spun a wedge to three feet and landed the birdie putt.

After the par save on No. 4, a two-group bottleneck on the par 5 fifth hole forced McIlroy's trio to wait 12 minutes to tee off.

No bother. McIlroy, playing freer since winning the first of his two Masters championships last year, boomed a 397-yard drive downwind to the right side of the fairway and landed a wedge 11 feet from the hole in a relatively flat part of the tricky green. As the ball disappeared into the hole, he appeared to let out a sigh of relief.

“It was obviously a really tricky day and just a day to stay patient and hang in there, and I hit enough good shots to give myself some chances,” McIlroy said.

Anything in red — an under par round on the scoreboard — “was a good effort," he said.

McIlroy held steady on the next two holes, rattling in a par putt on No. 6 and making a sand save on No. 7. But as he surely knows after 17 U.S. Opens, even an shot that seems good might not be, and even the smallest miscues are punished — especially at Shinnecock.

At No. 8, McIlroy's approach cut through the wind and flew into thick rough long of the green. At No. 9 his second shot bounded off the back of the green down a slope, long and left. McIlroy chipped to about 10 feet but missed the par try, holding out his putter as if willing his ball to slide toward the cup.

McIlroy was in the fairway off the tee on both par 4s.

“It’s so tough. It’s so difficult,” he said. “I didn’t feel like I hit two bad iron shots on the last two holes and put myself in pretty difficult spots and wasn’t able to get it up-and-down, but overall a really good day.”

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