An air shot by the 18th inexperienced left Rory McIlroy red-faced on the US Open on Thursday. But it was the one black mark on an in any other case elegant first spherical from the Northern Irishman who completed his first spherical in touching distance of the event leaders.

Low scoring will not be normally one thing related to what is usually thought of golf's most tough Major, but it surely was a unique story on the Los Angles Country Club, the place many high gamers together with McIlroy had been competing for the very first time.

On a groundbreaking day, Rickie Fowler set a brand new report for the bottom first-round rating in US Open historical past with an exceptional eight beneath par 62, just for fellow Californian Xander Schauffele to observe go well with simply minutes later.

But McIlroy was in no temper to admire the competitors leaders and got here firing out of the blocks, producing 5 birdies on the entrance 9 to achieve the halfway level of his spherical in simply 30 strokes.

By the time he reached the 18th, he was six beneath par, however a catastrophe turning into of a excessive handicapper was about to unfold. Having smashed a 357-yard drive down the golf green, his second shot landed within the thick tough in entrance of a raised bunker, subsequent to the inexperienced.

When the World No. 3 tried to hack his method out of the lengthy grass, he utterly missed the ball, prompting a collective gasp from the gallery. Replays confirmed that his wedge had travelled beneath the ball however there had been sufficient motion for the US PGA Golf Association shot tracker to verify that the ball had moved two inches.

A humiliated McIlroy recomposed himself earlier than chipping the ball onto the inexperienced on the second try. The pricey error regarded like it could lead to a double bogey however that was averted when he expertly drained an 11ft putt to drop only one shot and end his spherical at 5 beneath par.

Despite the irritating finish to his opening spherical, McIlroy completed the day simply three strokes adrift of event leaders Fowler and Schauffele and can fancy his possibilities of producing one other stable spherical on Friday.

The first spherical on the LA Country Club additionally managed to provide two hole-in-ones, with Frenchman Matthieu Pavon and Sam Burns of America each scoring terrific aces on the par 3 fifteenth gap.

What McIlroy fabricated from his good first spherical and uncharacteristic air shot on the ultimate gap remains to be anybody's guess, as he handed up the chance to do any post-round interviews, simply as he had performed earlier than the event received underway.