Rory McIlroy faces an uphill battle to avoid a third missed cut in four events after struggling to an opening 74 in the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open.
McIlroy was hoping that memories of his last appearance in the event would kickstart his injury-hit season, the world number four finishing 14th at Royal Aberdeen in 2014 before going on to win the Open Championship, WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and US PGA in his next three starts.
But instead the 28-year-old produced a repeat of the recent form which saw him miss the cut in the US Open in June and in the defence of his Irish Open title last week.
Starting from the 10th at Dundonald Links, McIlroy bogeyed the 11th and 12th and then span his approach to the 13th back into the burn which guards the front of the green.
The resulting double bogey was at least followed by a first birdie of the day on the par-five 14th, but another bogey on the 18th - where he pitched into a greenside bunker - took the four-time major winner to the turn in 40.
There was better news on the front nine as McIlroy took advantage of the two par fives and also birdied the seventh, but a bogey on the ninth left the Northern Irishman two over par, seven behind clubhouse leaders Rickie Fowler, Ian Poulter and Callum Shinkwin.
Playing alongside McIlroy, 2015 champion Fowler carded five birdies in a bogey-free 67, while Poulter and Shinkwin both had five birdies, an eagle and two bogeys in their rounds.
"I'm pretty happy," said Poulter, who came through final qualifying for the Open last week and finished second the last time it was staged at Royal Birkdale in 2008.
"The last couple of days I don't feel like I've hit it all that well, so I spent a bit of time yesterday on the range with Pete (Cowen). I got myself in a couple of spots of bother, but pretty much swung it well, put it in position and made a few putts and it adds up to a nice score."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here