Rory McIlroy finishes hot to open play at 2024 Irish Open with 68 at Royal County Down

A win at the 2024 Irish Open may not salvage Rory McIlroy's major championship-less year, but it would certainly reduce the sting. That's how McIlroy is pacing after shooting a 3-under 68 at Royal County Down on Thursday to start this year's tournament.

McIlroy birdied the first hole and took care of the par 5s with birdies across the board at Royal County Down in his home country of Northern Ireland. And while Rory was not always accurate from tee to green, he did clean up messes like this one at the par-5 12th where he went on to make birdie.

McIlroy also closed with three consecutive birdies to go from even par on the 16th tee box to 3 under when he finished -- within two of the lead held by Todd Clements, who fired a 5-under 66.

This is not the first time McIlroy has played well at the Irish Open. He famously won the 2016 edition at the K Club, but it has historically not been a place where he's played his best golf.

"I get the buzz, but I also feel the added pressure of trying to perform at home," McIlroy said of this year's edition being played in Northern Ireland. "Something I've honestly struggled with in the past. You know, the couple Irish Opens that I've played in Northern Ireland, the one Open Championship I played in Northern Ireland, hasn't went so well. I usually just try to relax and go about my business as I would at any other time of the year."

In 2015 at Royal County Down, McIlroy shot 80 in the first round, lost 2.03 strokes to the field over the first two days and missed the cut. That was his third consecutive missed cut at this tournament, and he followed the 2016 win with another missed cut in 2017.

So, his Irish Open golf has been dodgy. It's not as if his golf this summer has been amazing, either. McIlroy nearly won the U.S. Open at Pinehurst, but it's been fairly bumpy since with four top 11s, including a T5 at the Olympics while playing under the Irish flag, but also a missed cut at The Open and a T68 at the FedEx St. Jude Championship.

Thursday's performance, especially on a golf course as difficult as Royal County Down played, was a nice balm to the chaos of the summer on a difficult golf course with all the pressure that home brings about.

"It was a tough day," said fellow Irishman Padraig Harrington, who shot a 2-over 73. "Greens are very, very fast. Playing fast. So just made conditions, even though you couldn't have asked for nicer conditions, it was still pretty tough. ... Every time you lifted your head up and looked around, you got some hope because you could see a lot of carnage going on. 'What's he doing over there?'

"So yeah, it was a tough day but it was actually a day to have a little bit of a look around and see that the scoring wasn't going so well for everyone and to see that players were struggling in it."

McIlroy trails narrowly after 18 holes, but the four-time major winner's game looked better and more under control than it has for much of the last few months. He appears poised to get what would be a second Irish Open and fourth victory of 2024.

It's a great match, this golfer and that course: two of the best in the world without a doubt. And while winning at Royal County Down would not add to that albatross of a major total McIlroy surely feels for much of the year, it would be a wonderful way to enter a fall in which there's still a lot of golf left for the best golfer in his country's history.