McIlroy trails Lowry in India after ditching driver

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DP World India Championship - first round

-8 S Lowry (Ire); -7 K Nakajima (Jpn); -6 C Jarvis (SA) -5 J Campillo (Spa), J De Bruyn (Ger), R Gangjee (Ind)

Selected others: -4 B Griffin (US), B Harman (US), T Fleetwood (Eng), L Donald (Eng); -3 R McIlroy (NI); -1 V Hovland (Nor)

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Shane Lowry fired an opening eight-under 64 to lead the DP World India Championship, with Rory McIlroy five shots back after leaving his driver out of the bag.

Irishman Lowry, who missed the cut at last week's Open de Espana, birdied six of his last eight holes to lead Japan's Keita Nakajima by one shot.

Lowry and McIlroy's Ryder Cup team-mate Tommy Fleetwood and captain Luke Donald both shot four-under 68.

Playing for the first time since Europe's Ryder Cup triumph in New York last month, McIlroy fired six birdies and three bogeys in an up-and-down opening round.

The world number two chipped in from the fringe on the 10th - his opening hole - before slipping to back-to-back bogeys.

He picked up shots on the par-fives 14th and 18th and gained three more shots on his back nine before a bogey six at the eighth.

Despite opting for a safer approach off the tee, Northern Ireland's McIlroy said he still found Delhi Golf Club trickier than expected.

"You're just really trying to be as conservative as possible off the tee and then you're trying to pick off birdies on the par-fives and then maybe pick up a couple more, but it's a tricky golf course," said the five-time major winner.

After starting with four pars, Lowry - who is without an individual victory since September 2022 - carded back-to-back birdies at the fifth and sixth holes.

The former Open champion vaulted into a share of the lead with a run of five straight birdies from the par-four 11th before picking up a shot at the last to edge ahead of Nakajima.

"It's not that hard when you hit it in play out there, but you start missing fairways it becomes quite tricky, so I'm happy with that," said Lowry.

He added: "You need to shape it around the course, hit it in position off the tee and it's all about your iron play. That's one of my strengths and I took advantage of that today and managed to roll a few putts in on the back nine, which was nice."

Lowry added there was a "little bit" of Ryder Cup chat with playing partners Fleetwood and Donald.

"We could hear the horns from the road, it was not as off-putting as the Bethpage [Black] crowd," he said with a smile, referring to the hostile New York fans at last month's Ryder Cup.

Fleetwood mixed four birdies, an eagle and two bogeys to sit four shots back.

Donald, who is playing his first tournament since his second Ryder Cup success as captain, carded five birdies and a bogey to match fellow Englishman Fleetwood and 2023 Open champion Brian Harman.

Playing with McIlroy, US Ryder Cup player Ben Griffin opened with a 68 while McIlroy's European team-mate Viktor Hovland signed for a 71.

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