Irish Open: McIlroy in contention after late birdie flurry
Tom McKibbin salvaged his round late on
Rory McIlroy produced a late hat-trick of birdies to make an ideal start to his bid for a second Amgen Irish Open title.
McIlroy was in danger of letting a promising round slip away when he bogeyed the 14th and 15th to fall back to level par, but he birdied the last three holes at Royal County Down to record an opening 68.
While his start could have been better - three bogeys across his first 18 holes will likely have perturbed the Holywood star - it was a much-improved performance than the one of 2015 at the same venue when he hosted the tournament.
An opening 9-over par 80 essentially put him out of even making the cut nearly a decade ago, but this year was a more mature and considered McIlroy as he plotted his way around the world-famous links.
Despite the tee-off times being put back around 20 minutes, meaning he, Tom McKibbin and last year's champion Vincent Norrman didn't hit their first shots until close to 1.20pm, it didnt seem to affect McIlroy.
"Any time you can shoot three under around this place you have to be happy," said McIlroy.
"The conditions were pretty tough early on and then the wind seemed to settle a little bit those last few holes and it was nice to take advantage of that and play them the way I did.
"Giving those shots away on 14 and 15, to get more than both of them back on the last three holes was a great way to finish and gives me plenty of momentum going into Friday morning.
"It's nice to get off to a good start in Northern Ireland for a change. I enjoyed being out there, the crowds were great and it was great being out there with Tom McKibbin as well.
"I'm really pleased with how I started and hopefully I can continue into the next three days."
A precision opening drive led to him making the par 5 first in two and that resulted in an easy two-putt birdie.
It was in stark contrast to McKibbin, who blocked his drive out right, leading to a bogey to begin his round.
Further bogeys at the 3rd, 5th and 8th, only punctuated by a birdie on 6, left him three over par at the turn.
McIlroy got to the back nine one-under and then birdied the 12th to move closer to the top of the leaderboard. Successive bogeys on 14 and 15 did set him back before he drove pin high on 16 to set himself up for his fourth birdie of the afternoon.
While 16 went well for McIlroy, it didn't for McKibbin.
He was level par on his back nine, following a birdie and a bogey, only for double bogey at the short par four to put a nasty blemish on his scorecard
However, McIlroy birdied the last three holes and McKibbin the last two, to leave them on -3 and +3, with England's Todd Clements leading the way following a 5-under par 66.
Both players tee-off for the second round together at 8am on Friday.