Shane Lowry carded a 70 to sit on one-under after his opening round of the The Open in Royal Portrush.
Haotong Li, Jacob Skov Olesen and Matthew Fitzpatrick hold the clubhouse lead on four-under-par, three shots clear of Lowry.
“Everything is great. I'm happy” explained 2019 Open championship Lowry. “I've fought with this round of golf in my head for a few weeks now”.
“I knew it wasn't going to be easy. The 1st tee shot wasn't that easy. I wasn't feeling very comfortable there. I felt like I managed to handle myself very well.
“All day I felt like I handled myself really well. Crowds were amazing. Everything about this tournament has just been great”.
“I tried to kind of use that as motivation instead of sometimes you can put a bit too much pressure on yourself. I tried to use it in a different way today, and I felt like I did a good job with that”.
Lowry was particularly impressed with the reception he received on the 18th.
“Yeah, I wasn't expecting 18 to be full with Rory out on the course. The grandstand was full. Nice reception walking down 18”.
“It was pretty cool. Actually, like you said, there's an extra little bit of pressure on that 5-footer. It would have been disappointing to miss that”.
