Former US Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick’s form continued its upward trend after a four-under-par 67 gave him a share of the lead on the first day of The Open at Royal Portrush.
As he was finishing, home favourite Rory McIlroy was only just teeing off and, while he avoided the sort of nightmare start he endured here in 2019 when he went out of bounds at the first for a quadruple bogey, the Northern Irishman missed a short par putt, much to the disappointment of the thousands of who had come to see golf’s newest member of the career Grand Slam club.
