Rory McIlroy’s bid for back-to-back major titles has turned into a battle just to make the cut after an error-strewn start to his opening round at the PGA Championship.

McIlroy arrived as golf’s newest career Grand Slam champion and primed to challenge for further major success at the Quail Hollow Club, where he has won four times on the PGA Tour, only to struggle as part of the marquee group on Thursday morning.

The world No 2 birdied his opening hole – the 10th – but only added one more birdie throughout his first round, with three bogeys, including one on his final hole, and a double-bogey seeing him stutter to a three-over 74.

McIlroy found just four fairways off the tee and lost over two strokes on the field with his putting, with the Northern Irishman now facing an uphill task to remain in contention for a sixth major title and third PGA Championship victory.

“I always feel that Rory is at his best when he’s got a point to prove – he’s got the pointy elbows out and he’s chasing something down,” former Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley told Sky Sports. “I think enjoying all the success in the last month, maybe it’s not conducive to putting him in that mindset.

“He’s not out of this tournament nonetheless – he’s five shots behind (Scottie) Scheffler. He’s a long way behind the leaders, but are they going to keep that up? Unlikely. He’ll be resetting himself and coming at it again.

“Maybe now that he’s had a bad score, that puts him behind the eight ball and he goes forward over the next few days.”

What went wrong for McIlroy?

McIlroy got up and down from off the green to open with a 10-foot birdie putt at the par-five 10th, only to card a three-putt bogey at the next and miss a four-foot birdie chance at the driveable 14th hole.

The Masters champion recovered from avoiding the water off the 15th tee to make a two-putt birdie from just off the green, but double-bogeyed the next after an errant drive saw him take two attempts to get the ball back in play from thick rough.

McIlroy scrambled par at the 18th after pulling another tee shot before falling further behind at the par-four first, where he failed to get up and down from the greenside bunker, with a bogey on the ninth – his final hole – leaving him eight strokes behind early clubhouse leader Ryan Gerard.

“He just didn’t play very well, driving in particular got him into trouble,” McGinley added. “Driver cost him two shots on 16. From being under par for the day and having a pretty decent start, he then went over par for the day.

“Now he’s kind of against it, things not going for him, and he continued to miss fairways. A really poor second shot into one, which was his 10th hole, led to another bogey and things drifted away from then.

“He didn’t birdie seven, even when hitting only a mid-iron into a par-five, which was his 16th hole. He also had a great opportunity at the eighth. So, just not quite on it and not scoring as well and not playing as well.”

Can McIlroy still contend at Quail Hollow?

McIlroy was seven strokes off the lead after the opening day of The Masters, where he claimed play-off victory over Justin Rose to secure his first major win since 2014, although he will need to turn around an even bigger opening-day deficit if he is to follow it with another victory.

The 36-year-old has previous experience of recovering from an over-par start to win at Quail Hollow, having done so at the 2021 Wells Fargo Championship, but 34 of the last 35 PGA Championship winners have been within six shots of the lead after round one.

“I think he will reset, it’s just a question of whether this tournament has come too quick?” McGinley said. “He has spoken a lot about taking over Sir Nick Faldo in terms of the European player with the most major wins – that’s a big goal for him.

“He wants to be the standout player of his era. He’s got a couple of guys to jump over in that regard too, so there’s a lot of goals that will come. I’ve said it for a number of years now that if he wins one major, he’ll win three or four more, and I still believe that.

“It’s been a lot of turmoil, hasn’t it, the last month, and all positive turmoil. He’s in a really happy place. Of course he is – he has won the Grand Slam. It’s a lifelong achievement for every single one of these players.

“Second player in 60 years to do it, only the sixth in history, so of course he’s in a great place. But is that a great place then to reset? Is he in a place mentally to go out and reset? It’s really difficult when you’re coming off such a high.”

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