Rory McIlroy Starts Solidly at Irish Open While Playing Alongside Ryder Cup Snub Adrian Meronk

No Ryder Cup talk came up during the round but McIlroy said he could understand Meronk being 'heartbroken' about missing out on Rome.

STRAFFAN, Ireland — It’s the Irish Open and Rory McIlroy is in town. That’s all you need to know.

Shooting a 3-under 69 Thursday at The K Club outside of Dublin was a good beginning for someone who chiseled together a round that could have gone the other direction if not for some timely birdies on the 8th and 9th, his two last holes of the day.

The round was McIlroy’s 25th consecutive at par or better this year. His last over-par round was a 3-over 75 in the final round of the Memorial Tournament in June.

Rory McIlroy and Adrian Meronk opened with 69s at the Irish Open and their on-course chitchat did not include the Ryder Cup :: Richard Heathcote/Getty Images

“Short game was sharp, my putting was actually pretty good, and made some good up and downs when I needed to,” McIlroy said. “I think that the two birdies on the last two holes sort of glosses over what was a pretty average day. The one thing I feel like I've done really well over these probably past couple of years is manage my game and even though I don't play particularly well today, I can still sort of go out there and shoot something in the 60s and not fall too far behind."

In this case, McIlroy is three shots behind Englishmen Jordan Smith and Ross Fisher, and Denmark’s Thomas Bjorn.

The Irish crowd that followed McIlroy continued to grow through the round, watching their favorite son work his way through a K Club course that has been enhanced with better grass on the greens and thicker rough.

“They certainly live and die with every shot and every missed putt on every hole,” McIlroy said. “They're such a knowledgeable crowd, a very enthusiastic crowd.”

McIlroy is playing this week and next at the BMW PGA at Wentworth with the hopes of defending his Race to Dubai title and winning it for the fifth time overall.

“I've had quite the history with this tournament from hosting it to not being able to get the best out of myself. Feel like I tried too hard at times,” McIlroy said. “I guess, learn my way to getting to a point where I feel comfortable just going out trying to play my game and I'm sort of trying to get the best out of myself in front of this crowd.”

McIlroy was paired with Adrian Meronk of Poland and Billy Horschel, who both also shot opening 69s. The Ryder Cup didn’t come up, but McIlroy understands the underlying emotions that the 30-year-old Meronk is feeling after being left off the team.

“We all know that he's heartbroken,” McIlroy said. “Any other year he would have made the Ryder Cup team, there's just a few unfortunate circumstances that went against.”

McIlroy outlined a scenario where Meronk would have been on the team: had Jon Rahm and McIlroy not both made the team off the European points list but the world points list, that would have opened the door to the fourth and fifth men on the European list, Germany’s Yannik Paul and Meronk.

“Just the way it all sort of transpired was, it was very, very unfortunate,” McIlroy said.

“He went out there today shot a decent score. That's all you can do is use this as fuel for the fire to go ahead and keep playing good and hopefully make the next (Ryder Cup) in the States.”