Rory McIlroy managed to keep his head together and not “lose my sh– with officials,” according to The Telegraph’s Jamie Corrigan, who was on the scene at the 2025 Amgen Irish Open on Thursday.
“In all honesty, I felt a little rushed out there for the last 12 holes,” McIlroy told reporters. “We got put on the clock pretty early, and then the first official went away and then we were put on the clock for the last three holes to try to make time up.”
He bogeyed two of his last three holes to shoot a one-under 71 at the K Club in Straffen, Ireland and sit five shots off the first-round lead held by three golfers.
The Northern Irishman, who is playing his first Irish Open since winning the Masters in April and completing the career Grand Slam, argued that common sense was lacking — officials should have taken into account the fact that the bulk of the reported crowd of 20,000 had been following his group with Triston Lawrence and Kristoffer Reitan.
“It’s hard because you feel a bit rushed, you’re playing some tough holes and our group has to deal with a lot more than any other group on the course,” McIlroy added. “It’s understandable that we lose time. And I feel like anytime I either come back to Europe or I play in some of these, like 1-2-3 in the world type groups, we’re always put on the clock for that reason. So got a little frustrated the last few holes because I feel like it always happens.
“I don’t think they use sort of common sense in terms of, of course we’re going to lose ground because we’re going to have to wait on crowds and wait on the two camera crews that are out there.”
The Telegraph’s Corrigan backed McIlroy, saying in a social media post, “It’s pathetic they put him on the stopwatch. The rest of the field was in blessed isolation, pandemonium with McIlroy’s group. They have to make allowances.”
McIlroy was asked his solution for slow play in late January and said there’s no easy fix.
“Jeez, I have no idea,” he said. “This isn’t a new problem. This has been around forever, but slow play was also around when people seemingly loved golf. I don’t know what the answer is. There’s a lot of different answers, but not every answer is going to — is not going to make everyone happy.”
The low round of the day belonged to the following three players: 38-year-old Spaniard Nacho Elvira, who birdied four of the last five holes to shoot a bogey-free 6-under 66; Dane Thornbjorn Olesen, who birdied his last two holes, and Frenchman Romain Langasque, who birdied the last. The leaders were a stroke better than Daniel Brown and Bernd Weisberger. Ireland’s Shane Lowry shot 69.
“Probably the best that I’ve played in the last two, three months I would say,” Elvira, a two-time winner on the DP World Tour, said.
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