PGA European Tour Leaderboard: Irish Open 2015 Round 1 Recap, Rory McIlroy Shoots Nightmarish 80

The first day of the 2015 Dubai Duty Free Irish Open came to a close on Thursday, with Padraig Harrington and Maximilian Kieffer tying for the lead.

Soren Hansen sits comfortably in second, while Danny Willett, Soren Kjeldsen and Emiliano Grillo round out the top six. Below is a recap of the first day's events.

What They're Saying

Rory McIlroy (via Sky Sports): "I felt off the tee it was okay and got myself in some decent positions. Then closer to the green, the worse I got. I didn't hit very many good iron shots and then with my putting my speed was off; I wasn't reading them properly. I just lost confidence to the greens as the round went on. I was trying to birdie the last just trying to avoid breaking 80, but it didn't quite happen."

Padraig Harrington: "I know from experience now that I'm in a position where there's many ways of competing in this tournament. I've two options: play great from now on and try and get away from the field, or play average and fight it out on Sunday afternoon."

Maximilian Kieffer: "I had two three-putts from off the green on the front nine, but then I made two long putts after that, so that really like kept the momentum up. That was really nice."

Leaderboard

Position

Player

Day 1 Score

Overall

T1

Padraig Harrington

67

-4

T1

Maximilian Kieffer

67

-4

3

Soren Hansen

68

-3

T4

Danny Willett

69

-2

T4

Soren Kjeldsen

69

-2

T4

Emiliano Grillo

69

-2

T7

Luke Donald

70

-1

T7

Matt Ford

70

-1

T7

Rikard Karlberg

70

-1

T7

Chris Wood

70

-1

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