The 115th US Open got under way at Chambers Bay on Thursday, with Rory McIlroy looking to rediscover his top form and challenge for a fifth major title.
McIlroy is a combined 28 under par for his last two majors, shooting 16 under in winning the US PGA Championship at Valhalla last year and 12 under in finishing fourth in the Masters in April.
In contrast, the world number one is 14 over par for his last two European Tour events, carding rounds of 71 and 78 in the BMW PGA Championship and 80 and 71 in the Irish Open to miss successive halfway cuts.
“I don’t feel like I need to pick up any sort of momentum after the last couple of weeks,” insisted McIlroy, who was due to begin his first round at 08.28am local time (4.28pm Irish time) alongside defending champion Martin Kaymer and US Amateur champion Gunn Yang.
“I played well for my last three tournaments in the States [winning the WGC Match Play, finishing eighth in the Players and winning the Wells Fargo Championship] and then I went over to Europe and obviously it wasn’t quite as good as it was for the weeks previous to that.
“But my game feels in really good shape and I’m hitting the ball well and I’m confident, so I think it really is just about getting the right game plan and if you’re sharp with the driver and sharp with the putter from basically 30 yards and in, that’s going to be a big key this week.”
Another big key could be avoiding injury, with the caddies for Henrik Stenson (Gareth Lord) and Stephen Gallacher (Damian Moore) injured in separate falls within 30 minutes of each other on Wednesday afternoon.
Lord slipped on leaving the 16th tee and was pictured later with his left wrist in a soft brace, while Golfweek reported that Moore was taken from the course on a stretcher with a suspected ankle injury.