Well that’s one way to announce your return.
Rory McIlroy marked the end to his 11-year absence on Australian shores with a stunning birdie on the first hole of the Australian Open at Royal Melbourne on Thursday.
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Teeing off with Adam Scott, who he pipped for the Stonehaven Cup in 2013, and Min Woo Lee, the Northern Irishman drained a long birdie putt on the 10th, his first hole of the day, in front of a huge crowd.
Eagle alert! Adam Scott turns it on | 00:55
Scott and Lee both made par on the tough opening hole to kick off their campaigns.
2016 Master champion Danny Willett, meanwhile, had a disastrous opening after being forced to take an unplayable on his very first hole.
It saw the Englishman record a triple bogey to get his title tilt off to a rocky start.
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Rory fires early with first-hole birdie! | 01:09
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Reigning Masters champion McIlroy is thrilled to be back in Australia after the Open returned to its split format, with separate men’s and women’s tournaments.
Mixing the two events over the last few years prompted criticism from Aussie heavyweights including Cam Smith, who believed the greens were softer due to the format.
“I definitely had a few conversations with Golf Australia and (CEO) James Sutherland in particular. I think there was a lot of back and forth through the last couple of years and I think everyone is pretty happy with the result,” Smith said this week.
“Everyone is talking about the Aussie Open again, which is what we wanted. We wanted it back at Royal Melbourne, and we wanted it to be an event where international stars come down and compete and make it the event that it once was, so I think we are on the right track.”
Rory turns heads ahead of AUS Open | 01:06
The Open is now set to remain in the Melbourne sandbelt, with Kingston Heath to host the event in 2026 and McIlroy planning to return.
“I think just with obviously the wonderful golf courses that we play over the next couple of years and also the change in the format and going back to the traditional Australian Open probably helped that too. I’m just really excited to be back,” he said.
“If you look at the world of golf right now, there are three pretty big tournaments going on on the same week. You’ve got Tiger’s (Hero World Challenge) in the Bahamas, the Nedbank Challenge in South Africa and here.
“I’d say this tournament has lost a little bit of what it had say 30, 40 years ago. There’s so much golf and there’s so many tournaments, the eyeballs are divided and the interest in every one of those tournaments this week is probably not as high as it should be. I think (the Australian Open) in particular, because of the history, the tradition, deserves to be a standalone tournament.
“Hopefully one day, the powers that be put together a schedule where the biggest and best tournaments and oldest ones with the most heritage can be elevated and stand on their own.”
ROYAL MELBOURNE TEE TIMES (AEDT)
ROUND 1
Tee 1
6.45am: Tim Hart, Jak Carter, Jack Yule
6.55am: James Conran, Blake Proverbs, Adri Arnaus
7.05am: Matthew Baldwin, Davies Bryant, Alexander Simpson
7.15am: Rafael Campos, Richard Green, Curtis Luck
7.25am: Jordan Doull, Nathan Kimsey, Haydn Barron
7.35am: David Micheluzzi, Oliver Bekker, Eddie Pepperell
7.45am: Ben Campbell, Freedy Schott, Adam Bland
7.55am: Mike Toorop, Jogn Senden, Michael Wright
8.05am: Daniel Young, Brett Rumford, Fifa Laopakdee
8.25am: Ben Henkel
8.35am: Sadom Kaewkanjana, Andres German Gallegos
8.45am: Siddharth Nadimpalli, Andrew Evans, Blake Phillips
11.45am: Anthony Quayle, Karl Vilips, Jason Scrivener
11.55am: Jose Luis Ballester, Matt McCarty, Romain Langasque
12.05pm: Ryan Fox, Si Woo Kim, Joaquin Niemann
12.15pm: Lucas Herbert, Daniel Hillier, David Puig
12.25pm: Cam Davis, Abraham Ancer, Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen
12.35pm: Wenyi Ding Matt Jones, Ryo Hsatsune
12.45pm: Rafa Cabrera Bello, Jye Halls, Kazuma Kobori
12.55pm: Carlos Ortiz, Bernd Wiesberger, Wade Ormsby
1.05pm: Jack Buchanan, Tom Valliant, Maximillian Steinlechner
1.15pm: Lachlan Barker, Matthew Griffin, Stefano Mazzoli
1.25pm: Benjamin Follet-Smith, Dylan Gardner, Rocco Repetto Taylor
1.35pm: Jack Munro, Robin Williams, Ryan Can Velzen
1.45pm: Tapio Pulkkanen, Nathan Barbieri, Jason Norris
Tee 10
6.45am: Matias Sanchez, Austin Bautisa, Jeff Guan
6.55am: Alex Fitzpatrick, Geoff Ogilvy, Ryan Peake
7.05am: Adam Scott, Min Woo Lee, Rory McIlroy
7.15am: Cam Smith, Danny Willett, Elvis Smylie
7.25am: Joel Girrbach, Marc Leishman, Ugo Coussaud
7.35am: Charley Hoffman, Harrison Crowe, Sebastian Munoz
7.45am: Nick Voke, Caleb Surrat, Andrew Martin
7.55am: Jordan Gumberg, Jack Thompson, Andrew Johnston
8.05am: Quim Vidal, Josh Geary, Connor McKinney
8.15am: James Marchesani, Quinnton Croker, Hunter Logan
8.25am: Jasper Stubbs, Andreas Halvorsen, Filippo Celli
8.35am: Chris Malec, Will Flormi, Jay Mackenzie
8.45am: Andrew Campbell, Yannik Paul, Fabrizio Zanotti
11.45am: Jack Senior, Jake McLeod, Aaron Cockerill
11.55am: Christopher Wood, Kaito Sato, Renato Paratore
12.05pm: Brad Kennedy, Sean Crocker, Brendan Jones
12.15pm: Nicholas Colsaerts, Kiradech Aphibarnrat, Jediah Morgan
12.25pm: Sebastian Garcia, Sam Bairstow, Cameron John
12.35pm: David Law, Kerry Mountcastle, Ben Eccles
12.45pm: Greg Chalmers, Harry Takis, Ricardo Gouveia
12.55pm: Peter Lonard, Stephen Allan, Stephen Leaney
1.05pm: Daniel Gale, Shubhankar Sharma, Tobias Jonsson
1.15pm: Simon Hawkes, Clement Charmasson, Daniel Rodrigues
1.25pm: James Morrison, Cameron Adam, Phoenix Campbell
1.35pm: Michael Hollick, Clement Sordet, Jimmy Zheng
1.45pm: Brady Watt, Ollie Marsh, Lincoln Tighe
