Rory McIlroy says Ireland can win Olympic gold against one of golf calendar’s ‘weakest’ fields

“I’m sure we can,” McIlroy said of Ireland’s Olympic prospects. “No offence to the Olympic field, but it’s one of the weakest we play all year.

“It’s very top-heavy, probably half the field have a chance, and the other half reflects the qualification criteria. Yeah, we have as good a chance there as any of the events we play this year.

“It would be really cool. The good thing about being in Japan and Hideki being the Masters champion, there’s going to be a nice atmosphere for the golf.

“They’re going to have quite a few fans there from what I hear, and that’ll make it pretty cool.”

As for the Irish Open, he ended the day tied for 48th on four under, 11 shots behind Australian Lucas Herbert, who shot a two-under 70 to lead by one stroke on 15 under from 29-year old Californian Johannes Veerman, who fired a 67.

McIlroy bogeyed the third and then double-bogeyed the fourth after winging his drive into the trees right, and while he bounced back with birdies at the fifth, 10th, 11th and 13th, he hooked his tee shot out of bounds at the 16th and ran up another double bogey.

“I got off to a rough start, bogeying three and doubling four, and did well to claw myself back into it and made four birdies,” McIlroy said. “And then, yeah, I just hit one out of bounds on 16, just two bad tee shots, one on four and one on 16 cost me four shots.

“So that wasn’t ideal, but apart from that, the rest of the round was actually okay. Hit good putts, but they just weren’t going in. So just one of those days.”

He insisted he’s still happy with his game and gradually adjusting to European conditions as he heads to the Renaissance Club for next week’s Scottish Open before moving on to Royal St George’s for The Open.

“I’m okay,” he said of his confidence. “I drove the ball better at Torrey Pines than I did this week. It’s good to have Pete (Cowen) at the Scottish Open next week, so I will get to do a bit of work with him.

“Hopefully, I’ll have a good day tomorrow and shoot a good score. I’m looking forward to next week, as well. It’s good I added that in and it’s another competitive start.”

Lowry also got off to a nightmare start, running up a double-bogey as he came up short in the water at the par-three third before dropping another shot at the fourth.

He birdied the fifth but made no headway on the back nine, mixing birdies at the 15th and 17th with dropped shots at the 14th and 16th.

“It was just a struggle, bad start, hard when you go out trying to shoot a number and get off to that start,” Lowry said. “Silly shot on the third and followed up with a bad bogey on four, and then it’s kind of, from there, you’re behind the black ball, and you’re chasing, and things weren’t going my way.”

Ardglass’ Cormac Sharvin leads the home challenge, tied for 21st on seven under after a 69 as he chases around in the low 60s today and one of three starts in The Open.

“I just need to start playing better, to be honest,’ said the Co Down man, who is struggling with a toe injury. “I haven’t been playing great, and it’s just nice to start playing some decent golf again.

“We don’t know in this game, but it feels like I’ve turned a corner, anyway. I’ve done a lot of hard work recently, and just hopefully that will stick for a little while, anyway.”

Graeme McDowell also continued his recovery from poor form, bouncing back from three bogeys in his first three holes to share 35th on five under after a 70.

“It’s satisfying to be able to turn that around because I talked about how important it is for me to take weeks, and to be shooting 75 on Saturday is not going to get the job done,” McDowell said.

“It’s not going to do anything for the building of momentum that I need. So shooting a couple under after that start is very pleasing. It gives me something to go fire at.”