Tournament favourite and Ireland’s biggest hope Rory McIlroy had a nightmare start to the Open as he began with a quadruple-bogey eight.
He took a two-iron off the first tee for safety but pulled it left and his ball ended up five feet inside the internal out of bounds.
He was forced to reload, playing three off the tee, but that attempt found the rough leaving him 155 yards to the hole.
He hacked his approach into a gorse bush, was forced to take a penalty drop, chipped to eight feet but missed for a seven.
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PA
