Rory McIlroy was left hoping history would repeat itself after taking a share of the lead on day one of the US Open.
The world No2’s opening round of 65 at Pinehurst on Thursday matched his best-ever US Open start, equalling the scores he carded in winning the event in 2011 and finishing runner-up to Wyndham Clark a year ago.
It also proved a bogey-free round. The only previous times McIlroy has done that in the first round of a major, he ended up winning the 2011 US Open, the 2012 PGA Championship and the 2014 Open. His round put him into a share of the lead on five-under par, alongside his Ryder Cup nemesis Patrick Cantlay.
Afterwards, McIlroy said: “Certainly, the major championships that I’ve won or the ones that I’ve played well at, I’ve always seemed to get off to a good start, and it’s nice to get off to another one.
“It’s nice to see your name at the top of the leaderboard after the first day of a US Open. I felt like I played a really solid, controlled round of golf. I just stayed disciplined and, when I got myself in trouble, I took my medicine, two-putted.
“This is the whole thing about a US Open, it’s trying to keep clean scoreboards like this. I’m pretty sure I’m not going to keep it bogey free for the rest of the week but it’s not about how many birdies you make, it’s about how many bogeys you don’t make.”
In a star-studded group, it was McIlroy who shone, playing partner and pre-tournament favourite Scottie Scheffler struggling to a one-over-par 71 and the other member of their trio, recent PGA champion Xander Schauffele, finishing at one-under for his first round.
Conditions proved fairly benign at the notoriously tough Pinehurst and low scores look likely to be harder to come by later in the week at an event which Tiger Woods warned would be “a war of attrition”.
And so it proved for the 48-year-old, who has his work cut out to make the weekend after opening with a 74. He said simply: “I wasn’t as sharp as I needed to be.”
Rising star Ludvig Aberg, runner-up to Scheffler at the Masters, started strongly to put himself a stroke behind his Ryder Cup team-mate McIlroy in second.
Bryson DeChambeau was a further shot back while Tyrrell Hatton was the best of the Englishmen on the course after closing at two-under.
