Through all of the frustrations of a weather day which didn’t know whether it was coming or going, the dark clouds with silver linings contriving to douse players with heavy downpours before providing sporadic spells of sunshine, three men – Nacho Elvira, Thorbjorn Olesen and Romain Langasque – managed to make sense of it all with opening rounds of six-under-par 66s to share the first-round lead in the Amgen Irish Open on the Palmer Course.
For sure, the elements – with a near hour-long suspension in play at one juncture due to the sound of thunder and the threat of lightning in the air – contrived to pose an added examination to a course with stern questions of its own, most notably on the par 4 seventh which, as it has done through the years in hosting previous DP World Tour events, played as the toughest of all, on this occasion half a stroke above its par.
Aside from the contrary weather, there were other exasperations at play for players. In the case of Rory McIlroy, it was the coming and going of rules officials who put his group – which also included Thriston Lawrence and Krisstoffer Reitan – on the clock not once but twice, a factor the Masters champion attributed to dropping two shots in his final two holes in signing for a one-under 71, five off the pace set by the Spaniard, the Dane and the South African.
“I just let it agitate me a little bit,” said McIlroy of believing he was “rushed” in making shots when put on the clock, expanding: “I feel like any time I either come back to Europe or I play in some of these like [number] one- two- three- in the world-type groups, we’re always put on the clock for that reason.
RM Block
“I got a little frustrated the last few holes because I feel like it always happens and I don’t think they use sort of common sense in terms of, well, of course we’re going to lose ground because we’re going to have to wait on crowds and wait on the two camera crews that are out there.
“You know, there’s just a lot more going on with our group than any of the other groups on the course, and sometimes I feel like they have to give us a little bit of leeway and use a bit of common sense.”
Still, McIlroy at least managed to remain under par for his round, joined on 71 by Tom McKibbin, while Shane Lowry’s three-under 69 saw the Offalyman – still on the high of getting one of Luke Donald’s Team Europe wild card picks for the Ryder Cup at Bethpage later this month – lead the home challenge, in tied-12th.
Alex Maguire, playing on a sponsor’s invite, was poised to assume that leading role only for the 24-year-old Meathman – a player ranked 1,678th in the world and who flits between the Hotel Planner Tour and the Clutch Pro Tour – to suffer a double bogey six on the seventh, his 16th, where his drive leaked right beyond the out of bounds.
Maguire parred the eighth to remain on two-under but never got to finish his round, however, as darkness cut him short. Maguire’s drive to the ninth fairway was a good one, safely down the middle, but darkness forced play to be suspended for the only group left on the course with unfinished business to be completed.
The water, lakes and river, acted like magnets for many, among them Lawrence – winner of the European Masters in the Alps just last Sunday – who was brought back down to earth in signing for an 81, which included hitting his tee shot in the river Liffey on the par 3 eighth while Calum Hill hit two tee shots into the river off the 17th tee in running up an eight there before signing for a 77.
And Séamus Power too found the Liffey with his approach to the 17th, resulting in a costly double-bogey six that saw him signing for a level par 72 alongside Robert Moran, who’d earned his exemption in the field through finishing as leading home player in last month’s Irish Challenge.
Such were the water perils at play, although Olesen – an eight-time winner on the DP World Tour – recovered from also finding water on the par 3 third by getting some rub of the green in chipping in twice in his round to join Elvira in a share of the lead.
Olesen has to go all the way back to the Myrtle Beach Classic on the PGA Tour for his last top 10 anywhere and attributed a break at home following the Danish Championship for his refreshed play: “I feel like I had a tough five months, played a lot of golf. So it was nice to have what I needed, to have two weeks off before this and just get home and spend some time with the family, and recharge a little bit. I felt like I really needed that, and I’m looking forward to the rest of the season.”
For Elvira – who was briefly joined in a share of the lead by his younger brother Manuel – his reward for a more solid driving display was to navigate his way to the top of the leaderboard: “I haven’t been able to hit it very straight lately. When my iron play is very solid, when I’m on the fairway, I manage to score. But I’ve been struggling with that lately and hopefully I can keep it on the fairway often.”
