Twelve months ago, Rory McIlroy held the first-day lead following a seven-under 64 at Royal Aberdeen.
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“He’s doing the hard work and making my schedule a lot easier”, Rose said.
McIlroy admitted Wednesday he would not recover in time to defend the Open Championship title he won at Hoylake near Liverpool previous year.
Top-ranked Inbee Park birdied two of her last three holes before play was stopped and was at 2 under through 14. “I’ve missed that”, said McDowell, who was 5 under after eight holes after four straight birdies on Nos. 5-8. “I haven’t felt like I’ve been in a good place very often this year”.
Given all that’s gone on this week, it was nearly inevitable we’d be talking about Thorbjorn Olesen falling off a camel. When I jumped down from it, I pulled a muscle in my groin and it was pretty bad.
“It was some weeks before I could walk properly again”.
On his return from the wrist injury, Olesen finished runner-up in Mauritius in early May but has since missed five cuts in six outings.
England’s Matthew Nixon, Spain’s Adrian Otaegui and American Jimmy Walker shot 5 under in benign conditions for the morning starters, who had only a light breeze to contend with off the Firth of Forth.
Among those tied on 66 on a day of low-scoring on the composite East Lothian course were defending champion Justin Rose, American Ryder Cup players Rickie Fowler and Matt Kuchar and ex- US Open champion Graeme McDowell.
“Getting nervous with a couple of holes to go because I’ve got a good round going”. This is McDowell’s first appearance in the event since 2011, following which he made comments about Castle Stuart that he instantly regretted.
Playing partner Phil Mickelson, who won the 2013 Open a mile down the road at Muirfield, was in danger of missing the halfway cut when he bogeyed the 11th and 12th, but responded in style with a hat-trick of birdies from the 14th to finish three under. It prompted some changes coming into this week. I’m trying to get back to some things.
The former U.S. Open champion has had problems balancing life as a father and a professional golfer since the birth of his first child – daughter Vale – last August. “We didn’t have that much wind today which meant you could attack the golf course a little bit”, said Olesen.
“But then it starts to get frustrating and you want to get back to playing competitive golf”.
“It’s going to be colder over here, compared to John Deere, where it’s hot”, he said.
“I just need a few low numbers to get my belief and confidence back and today will go a long way towards that”.
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“It’s been a tough time for me over the past year, but I keep working on the right things and hopefully it will come”. And it could have been even better – he three-putted for bogey on his last two holes.
