Rory was rocking but he finally found his groove to finish strongly at the Scottish Open

Rory McIlroy is confident he’s back in the groove after a rescue mission at The Renaissance in the opening round of the Genesis Scottish Open.

The Masters champion looked like he was toiling midway through his first round, with a bogey on the 15th hole dropping him back to one-over par.

After finding a bunker off the tee, McIlroy failed to get out of the sand with his second shot and his ball rolled awkwardly back into a footprint.

He scrambled to drop only one shot, holing a putt from off the green when it looked like he might be staring down the barrel of a double bogey.

That proved to be the catalyst for an excellent finish, with McIlroy reeling off three straight birdies on his final three hole in a late burst of brilliance.

‘That was a good bogey in the end on 15,’ said McIlroy after eventually signing for a two-under 68 in East Lothian, sitting four shots back from the leaders. ‘Holing it from off the green, it actually felt like a birdie.

‘I felt like the round was a bit stop-start. It was scrappy at the start, I couldn’t get the pace of the greens, and there was a little bit of rust in there after taking a couple of weeks off.

‘But I felt like I found my rhythm and started hitting some better shots on the way in. Overall, I felt like it was a good opening round.

‘It’s the sort of golf course and conditions where it felt like the field was going to be pretty bunched.

‘So to only be four shots behind after the first day, and feeling like I’ve still got my best stuff ahead of me, that feels good.

‘I managed to hole a few putts for birdie over the last few holes and I feel like that gives me some nice momentum heading into the next few days.’

After taking a break over the past couple of weeks, McIlroy is now tuning up his game ahead of next week’s Open Championship on home soil at Royal Portrush.

He feels his game is moving in the right direction on what is his first appearance on European soil since completing the career Grand Slam at The Masters back in April.

‘I feel like I’m about 80 per cent right now,’ he added. ‘I struggled a lot in left-to-right winds today, whereas I was fine with the right-to-left winds.

‘If there’s an opportunity this week to be aggressive, you have to be. I’m still trying to win the golf tournament.

‘I’m trying to shoot the lowest score possible. At Portrush, there’s opportunities to be aggressive, too.

‘It’s not as if you play a certain strategy for this tournament, then you play like really tentative and cagey for a major.

‘You just have to play the course and the conditions that are in front of you and go from there.

‘It has been nice to have a change of scenery this week. I feel like that has renewed my energy and enthusiasm for the rest of the season.’