Melbourne: PGA Tour winner Ryan Fox, Australian Elvis Smylie and LIV golfer Carlos Ortiz upstaged Rory McIlroy to share the lead at the Australian Open Thursday as the Masters champion struggled with his putter on Royal Melbourne’s tricky greens.
Thousands of fans queued early in order to secure a view of McIlroy and his crack-of-dawn tee time with fellow Masters winner Adam Scott and the popular Min Woo Lee, both Australians. But Northern Irishman McIlroy struggled with a gusting northerly wind and sloped greens, ending seven off the pace after a rollercoaster one-over-par 72 containing five birdies and six bogeys.
“Some crowds for seven o’clock in the morning,” McIlroy said of the huge galleries that followed his signature three-ball. “Yeah, it was great. It was a wonderful atmosphere with Adam and Min Woo too.
“It was unbelievable to see how many people were lining the fairways and framing the greens.” Asked how he could claw his way back into contention at the DP World Tour event, the 2013 Australian Open champion McIlroy said: “I need to putt better.
“I holed some good ones, I think I was better from outside 25 feet than I was from inside five, so work on that a little bit. “I made enough birdies, but I just need to limit the mistakes.”
