BETHESDA, Md. —There was nothing to suggest during the first round of the U.S. Open that Rory McIlroy was looking in his rear-view mirror at the misfortune of his awful final nine holes of the Masters.
That had been difficult to watch. Leading by 4 strokes going into the fourth round an
d by 1 heading into the back nine at Augusta National, McIlroy crumbled completely and violently tumbled down the standings, tying for 15th after an 80.
For as cringe-worthy as that performance was, McIlroy’s opening-day showing Thursday at Congressional Country Club was as pleasant to watch as the scenery on a drive through the country. He fashioned a bogey-free, 6-under-par 65 to open his run at the national championship with a 3-shot lead.
So much for the wonderment over whether McIlroy, who has turned 22 since the Masters, would be shell-shocked in his return to major competition after the Augusta debacle.
“I don’t know if it says that I’ve just got a very short memory,” he said. “I took the experience from Augusta, and I learned a lot from it.
“You’re going into a U.S. Open. You can’t be thinking about what happened before. You’ve got to just be thinking about this week and how best you can prepare and how you can get yourself around the golf course.”
The 65 marked the third time in the last four majors that McIlroy has gone low to either share the lead or grab it outright after Day 1. He fired a 63 in the first round of last year’s British Open at St. Andrews. He began the Masters with a 65 to tie for the top spot.
Then came Thursday, a near-effortless performance. McIlroy, who began on the back nine, hit 17 greens in regulation. On the only green he missed, the 14th, he blasted out of a bunker and saved par with a 15-foot putt. Five of his birdies came on tries of 10 or fewer feet.
McIlroy said at one point on his second nine, he fleetingly thought of 62, which would be the lowest round ever shot in a major. But after a two-putt birdie at the par-5 sixth, he “only” could par in.
“Didn’t quite work out that way,” he said, “but this is definitely up there. It felt like quite a simple 65. I didn’t do much wrong. I just kept giving myself opportunities for birdies, and when you can do that in a U.S. Open, it’s pretty good.”
It’s the first time since 1976, when then-amateur Mike Reid did it, that a player led by 3 strokes after the opening day.
Before McIlroy turned Congressional into his personal playground, the rest of the field seemed to struggle just to get to 3 under. Masters champion Charl Schwartzel and 2009 PGA winner Y.E. Yang finished at that figure, carding 68s.
A group of a half-dozen at 69 included reigning British Open champion Louis Oosthuizen, Sergio Garcia, Ryan Palmer, and three players few people have ever heard of. Palmer is the only American in the top nine, a telling sign that may lead to a fifth consecutive non-American winning a major.
Two tournament favorites played with McIlroy but fared poorly. Phil Mickelson didn’t hit the ball well but scrambled like mad to stay in the game at 74. Dustin Johnson triple-bogeyed the 11th hole and wound up with a 75.
After some overnight rain, the course played fairly benign. Twenty-one players shot under par and 12 more matched par. The sun came out infrequently, and more rain fell as McIlroy finished just before 7 p.m.
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