Rory McIlroy stands three shots ahead of the competition after the first round of the 111th US Open.
The 22-year-old hit six under par with 65 at the Congressional Country Club, ahead of South African Charl Schwartzel and Korean YE Yang who were both three under. His position represents the greatest US Open first-round lead since 1976.
Schwartzel beat McIlroy to the Masters in April when the Northern Irishmen fell from four ahead to ten behind, an incident that he says he has learned from.
“I took the experience from Augusta and I learned a lot from it,” he said. “But yeah, I mean you’re going into the US Open. You can’t be thinking about what’s happened before. You’ve got to just be thinking about this week, and how you can best prepare, and how you can get yourself around the golf course.”
He acknowledged that the tournament will only get harder but said that he hoped to maintain the lead. “I just need to keep it going,” he added. “I really played good out there, didn’t make any mistakes, which in a US Open is huge.”
