Rory McIlroy may not have been top of the leaderboard after day one of the Irish Open, but he was certainly the centre of attention.
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The US Open champion got off to a flying start on Thursday and led by two shots at four under after just 10 holes of his first round, prompting some Betfairians to trade over £300 at 2.7 in the Winner market. But that's as good as it got for the world number four; McIlroy went on to make a bogey, six straight pars, and a double bogey at the 18th to finish his round on one under par.
And it was that double bogey that caused much debate. Basically, American commentator Jay Townsend - on his Twitter account no less - accused McIlory of demonstrating terrible course management (for using driver on the tee which resulted in his ball finding the bunker) and even suggested that he should change his caddy (J.P. Fitzgerald). McIlroy took offence at this, told Townsend to shut up, accused him of being a failed golfer, and said that he stands by J.P. I just hope this spat doesn't overshadow what promises to be a fantastic tournament.
McIlroy can now be backed at 11.0 but his first round performance wasn't anywhere near as bad as some of the other leading Irish players, most notably Padraig Harrington (+2) and Graeme McDowell (+1). All three are some distance behind early leader Jeev Milkha Singh however, the Indian shot a magnificent round of 63 and at eight under par leads by two shots from Frenchman Alexandre Kaleka.
Singh is now favourite at 7.6 and has a fantastic chance of building a healthy lead with an early second round tee time, but I'm happy to have a small In-Play wager on two players who have performed well in recent weeks, had a decent first round, and also start early on Friday - Thorbjorn Olesen (-2) and Lorenzo Gagli (-3), both of whom can be backed at 80.0.
