McIlroy rallies as Straka shares Scottish Open lead

Scottish Open first round leaderboard

-6 S Straka (Aut), J Knapp (US), N Echavarria (Col), V Perez (Fra); -5 C Hill (Sco), M Siem (Ger), M Schmid (Ger), M Penge (Eng); -4 W Clark (US), K Mitchell (US), R Fox (NZ), V Hovland (Den), T Kim (Kor)

Selected others: -3 S Scheffler (US), L Aberg (Swe); -2 R McIlroy (NI); R MacIntyre (Sco), X Shauffele (US); -1 J Thomas (US); E T Fleetwood (Eng)

Rory McIlroy salvaged his opening round with a superb finish as Sepp Straka defied his own “very low expectations” to share the Scottish Open lead.

Austria’s Straka, chasing his third PGA Tour win of the year, was joined on six under by American Jake Knapp, Frenchman Victor Perez and Nico Echavarria of Colombia at the Renaissance Club.

Home favourite Bob MacIntyre began his title defence with a two-under 68 to sit alongside McIlroy, one adrift of world number one Scottie Scheffler and Ludvig Aberg.

Scotland’s Calum Hill, who posted a blemish-free 65, and Englishman Marco Penge are one shot off the top.

Straka belied his poor Scottish Open record – missed cuts on both previous visits – as a razor-sharp short game helped him shine in sun-baked East Lothian.

Starting on the par-five 10th, he got the ball rolling with back-to-back birdies and was four under at the turn.

Three birdies in a row followed from the third to give the European Ryder Cup player the outright lead before he immediately wobbled with successive bogeys.

The response was magnificent, though, as he chipped in from left of the eighth green to complete a fine day’s work.

“The game’s been in really good shape coming into here,” Straka said. “The low expectations come from just not having performed at this course.

McIlroy – in his first UK outing since completing the career Grand Slam with Masters glory in April – started with a bogey and struggled for momentum until the final few holes.

One over after his third dropped shot of the day on 15 and seemingly out of sorts, the Northern Irishman delivered a superb ending of three consecutive birdies to reach two under in a “stop-start” opening round.

“There was a little bit of rust in there after taking a couple of weeks off, but I found my rhythm and started hitting better shots on the way in,” the world number two said.

“It was a good opening round. It’s the sort of golf course and conditions where I feel like the field is going to be pretty bunched. So to only be four behind after the first day, feeling like I’ve still got my best stuff ahead of me, that feels good.”

Scheffler opened with an eagle on the 10th and picked up a further two strokes, but an untidy finish featured bogeys on four and six.

“I wish I would have played a little bit better after that [eagle],” the American said. “But, overall, I felt like I did some good things out there and hung in there nicely and put up a decent score.”

MacIntyre battled a “cold putter” during a mixed opening round that included four birdies and two bogeys, describing the conditions as “carnage” despite a day of low scoring.