Newly-crowned Open champion Rory McIlroy had to settle for an opening 69 on his return to action in the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in Akron, Ohio last night.
Playing his first event since claiming his third major title at Royal Liverpool, McIlroy played his opening 11 holes in three under par at Firestone Country Club.
However, the 25-year-old then three-putted the third hole - his 12th - and ran up a double-bogey six on the eighth after finding a greenside bunker with his approach and taking four more shots to get down.
But McIlroy finished in style with a brilliant approach to the ninth to set up a birdie from just two feet to finish one under par, four shots off the clubhouse lead shared by American Ryan Moore and South African Charl Schwartzel.
"I felt like I played really solid," McIlroy said. "I drove the ball for the most part well. I got myself into trouble a couple of times which led to a bogey and a double bogey on my back nine but apart from that I felt I played really solid golf without really doing anything."
He went on: "It's great to win a major, great to win the Open Championship but I just want to keep going forward and I'll have plenty of time in December and January to reflect on it and enjoy what I've achieved this year. For now I want to keep going and try to have some more success."
Meanwhile, Glasgow golfer Barry Hume continued to roll back the years in the Fairstone Scottish Amateur Championship at Downfield yesterday
The 32-year-old, who won the national title at the Dundee course in 2001, romped into the quarter-finals with a 4 and 3 win over Connor Syme.
Hume, a former Scotland team-mate of Glasgow's European Tour star Marc Warren, said: "If I was to win this, it would be a big shock to everyone. Winning it is not in my thoughts but this is now the business end of the tournament and this was my best performance of the week so far."
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