Thursday 18 July 2019 17:13, UK
Home favourite Rory McIlroy endured a horrendous start to The Open as he hacked his way to a quadruple-bogey eight on the opening hole at Royal Portrush.
Like Darren Clarke and Graeme McDowell before him, McIlroy's arrival on the first tee was greeted with thunderous applause from his home fans with thousands straining to get a decent view of their idol.
But there was barely a whisper when the 30-year-old pulled his first shot way left which hit a spectator, smashing her mobile phone and landing close to the out-of-bounds markers, forcing him to hit a provisional ball as the marshal's searched for his first.
A disconsolate McIlroy then trudged up the fairway to be informed that his first shot had indeed gone out-of-bounds, and he then compounded the error with a gouged second from the long grass that found some thick shrubbery to the left of the green.
His shoulders slumped a little further when the realisation dawned that he would have to take a penalty drop for an unplayable lie, although he did manage to play a solid pitch to four feet with his sixth shot.
But the putt drifted to the right of the cup, and the world No 3 tapped in for the ugliest of sixes which left him needing to dig deep to repair the damage.
Watch the video above to see Rory McIlroy's horror start to The 148th Open. Watch live on Sky Sports The Open or via our extensive live blog ...
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