McIlroy 'encouraged' despite up-and-down Irish Open start

Irish Open, first round leaderboard

-6 N Elvira (Spa); -5 D Brown (Eng), B Wiesberger (Aut), A Saddier (Fra); -4 O Lindell (Fin), A Halvorsen (Nor); -3 S Lowry (Ire)

Selected others: -1 R McIlroy (NI), B Koepka (US); +2 P Harrington (Ire)

Full leaderboard

An upbeat Rory McIlroy says his game is coming together "a little bit" ahead of the Ryder Cup despite a sloppy finish to his first round at the Irish Open.

Playing in his penultimate event before helping Europe's bid to retain the Ryder Cup against the United States in New York later this month, McIlroy recorded five birdies and four bogeys at the K Club on Thursday.

And while the Masters champion let shots go at two of his last three holes to shoot a one-under 71 and sit five off the early lead, he seemed happy with his efforts.

"I feel like I played better than what the score reflects," the 36-year-old told Sky Sports.

"I drove the ball well, hit the ball well, but just had that disappointing finish, bogeying two of the last three holes. But I'm pretty encouraged with how I played. I just didn't score as well as I wanted to."

Spain's Nacho Elvira leads after opening with a bogey-free 66, with England's Dan Brown, Austrian Bernd Wiesberger and Frenchman Adrien Saddier one back.

Home favourite Shane Lowry finished with a birdie to card an opening 69, while five-time major winner Brooks Koepka matched McIlroy's 71.

McIlroy, who will also play in next week's BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth before the Ryder Cup, added: "[My] game feels pretty good.

"As I said, off the tee was good, it was a continuation of what I saw at East Lake [at the Tour Championship] a couple of weeks ago. It's a matter of being a little more efficient with the scoring."

Having finished the PGA Tour season in low-key fashion with ties for 12th and 23rd in his last two events, McIlroy said he was planning to use the next couple of weeks to fine-tune his game at the K Club and Wentworth before the Ryder Cup.

And while there were flashes of brilliance from the world number two, errors prevented him from reaching the top of the leaderboard.

Starting on the 10th hole, he drained a 30-foot birdie putt on the 11th and picked up another at the 13th, but gave one back after finding water off the tee on the 15th.

After picking up birdie fours on the 16th and 18th holes, he bogeyed the second after finding the trees with his tee shot.

Another birdie four at the fourth moved him to three under, but after missing a chance on the sixth, he stuttered to back-to-back bogeys on the seventh and eighth before letting a birdie putt slip past on his closing hole.

"Ball-striking wise I thought I was pretty good today," added McIlroy, whose sole Irish Open title came at the K Club in 2016.

"Around the greens for the most part I was good, but I missed a couple of mid-range putts towards the end to save par and then that one at the last for birdie.

"I feel like I hit decent putts, I'm just hitting edges so hopefully I can get it going tomorrow and shoot a low one."

While McIlroy struggled over his last few holes, Lowry carded three birdies in his last six to stay in touch.

Like McIlroy, Lowry is hoping to play his way into form for the Ryder Cup, with his last top-10 finish having come at the Truist Championship in May.

Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald was among the players in afternoon action at the K Club. England's Tyrrell Hatton, who is part of Donald's team, Northern Ireland's Tom McKibbin and former Masters winner Patrick Reed also teed off at lunchtime.

Defending champion Rasmus Hojgaard - who held off McIlroy in a dramatic finish at Royal County Down last year - is not competing after withdrawing earlier this week.