Rory McIlroy had a singular pursuit. Visit his hometown of Holywood, in Northern Ireland, and you leave knowing the truth of that. The post In Rory McIlroy's humble hometown, they always saw him coming appeared first on Golf.

“I feel the support of an entire country out there, which is a wonderful position to be in, but at the same time, you don’t want to let them down so there’s that little bit of added pressure,” McIlroy said. “I felt like I dealt with it really well today. I certainly dealt with it better than I did six years ago.

Rory McIlroy grew up in Holywood, Northern Ireland, and learned to play golf at Holywood Golf Club. I visited and took the "McIlroy Tour."

McIlroy didn't play his best Thursday at Royal Portrush but shot 1-under 70 and is three shots off the 18-hole lead.

That was set by McIlroy’s Ryder Cup team-mate Matt Fitzpatrick, whose 67 was the lowest opening round of his major career, world number 354 Jacob Skov Olesen, China’s Li Haotong, South African Chris Bezuidenhout and American Harris English.

The home favourite endured a rollercoaster day as The Open returned to Portrush for the first time since he missed the cut in 2019, but despite only hitting two fairways he managed to finish under par

Rory McIlroy felt the support of “an entire country” kept him going as he overcame a mid-round wobble and finished strongly to keep his Open hopes alive at Royal Portrush.

It was ugly at times and he barely located a fairway but Rory McIlroy's homecoming party at Royal Portrush did not go as flat as a pint of stale Guinness as he scrambled to an opening-round 70 at the British Open on Thursday.

Rory McIlroy opened up on his disastrous start to the 2019 Open Championship at Royal Portrush, admitting he "tries to forget" about his first round at the event as Graeme McDowell places his bets on