Rory McIlroy’s escape act may go down in Open history as he looks to end drought

If Rory McIlroy does end up snapping his nine-year Major streak at Hoylake on Sunday he will look back at an astonishing final hole escape act as pivotal. At the end of a draining first round which tested his patience to the very limit, McIlroy was in grave danger of undoing all the good work of the previous hour.

Trapped impossibly up against the face of a greenside bunker at the 18th, he had just left his ball in the trap. Worse, it had come to rest in his own footprint in a spot which required him to contort himself into a yoga position even to fashion a shot.

The up-and-down he needed for a 71 looked a long way off. Justin Thomas had just posted a nine in the group ahead after a similar misadventure. But on one knee, McIlroy fashioned an incredible recovery shot out of his own footprint to leave himself a ten foot par putt which he holed to a huge roar.

The legions of fans who thronged the fairways hoping to see McIlroy magic were finally rewarded and the fist pump from the Northern Irishman spoke volumes. The people’s champion, who craves the feeling of being a Major champion again so badly, was still in the game.

“It was really good in the end,” said McIlroy. “These bunkers are just really tough. It doesn’t seem to go into the middle of them and you’re always up against the face. I was quite lucky, it could have gone into a deeper part of my foot print and I’d have been there all night.

“But I hit a hell of a shot and was pretty pleased to walk away with a par. Even par is a solid start, I wouldn’t have minded being a couple lower but I’ll take it. After bogeying a couple of holes on the front there I could have let the round get away from me and I didn’t.”

Major Championships do not come easily and there was nothing easy about today for McIlroy. Like the rest of a spluttering supergroup, which saw Jon Rahm and Justin Rose shoot three over par, he had to fight his swing and fight the golf gods.

It took until the third hole for any of them to hit a fairway and even when McIlroy did locate one he found a greenside bunker with a sloppy wedge and failed to get up and down. “It’s a bit disappointing waiting two hours for that,” muttered one underwhelmed fan.

Rose had to reload twice at the fifth on his way to a double bogey six while Rahm, who had rattily whacked his club against his bag after going left off the tee on the fourth, struck a fan on the head on the 12th from where his ball ricocheted into the face of a fairway bunker. The Spaniard handed the shaken supporter a glove by means of apology.

McIlroy meanwhile had been left staring in disbelief after a bogey at the eighth which saw a putt from two and a half feet horseshoe around the hole and back out. It looked like being a day to forget all round for the gilded trio when McIlroy bogeyed the 12th after a huge hook towards the Dee Estuary.

At two over, with five holes to play, the round looked to be unravelling. His body language was a portrait of pent-up frustration. But he dug in and detonated a bomb from 42ft to birdie the 14th which sparked another one out of the greenside bunker at the par-5 15th to pull his round back from the brink.

The 18th could have wrecked everything but thanks to his escapology it didn’t. Five back from the leaders, McIlroy is not where he would have wanted to be in a perfect world after round one but it could have been a whole lot worse.