Rory McIlroy birdies last 3 holes and is 2 shots off the lead at his home Irish Open
Associated PressNEWCASTLE, Northern Ireland — Rory McIlroy birdied his final three holes to shoot 3-under 68 and sit two strokes off the first-round lead at the Irish Open on Thursday. 3-ranked McIlroy is attempting to win his home tournament for the second time — eight years after the first — and is playing at Royal County Down Golf Club, a course that is a short drive from his childhood home of Holywood in Northern Ireland and where he used to play with his friends. “It’s just unfortunate that we don’t have the infrastructure around the golf course to host something like an Open because if we did, it definitely would be able to host an Open Championship.” Tough winds and some rain made for difficult conditions and No. I’ve probably struggled a lot in left-to-right winds this year, so to sort of control my ball flight a bit and test it out there today was good to see that, you know, I was able to do it when I needed to.” McIlroy, who openly admits to struggling when playing in front of expectant home crowds, is back in Europe after the end of the PGA Tour season.