Rory McIlroy admitted it had been both “rowdy and lively” as he teamed up with Shane Lowry in an epic first-day duel in the 45th Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black.

The Masters champion opened his eighth appearance in the biennial event by joining forces with Tommy Fleetwood to record a 5&4 win over Collin Morikawa and Harris English in the opening foursome session.

That helped Luke Donald’s team win the first alternate shot phase 3-1 after pulling off a 4-0 clean sweep when regaining the trophy with a 16.5-11.5 success in Rome two years ago.

McIlroy was then sent out with Lowry in the afternoon fourballs, facing Patrick Cantlay and Sam Burns.

placeholder image — Team Europe's Rory McIlroy reacts after making an eagle putt on the seventh hole during the Friday afternoon fourball Ryder Cup play at Bethpage. (Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)

In a ding-dong battle, McIlroy made a gesture at one point as he found himself the main target for some horrible comments from the US fans.

He did his best to quieten them by hoping birdie putts at both the 16th and 17th before tossing his putter up in the air in frustration when he was unable to convert a great chance on the 18th green to win the match.

“Yeah, look, it's still a great day for Europe,” he said of the visiting team getting off to the start Donald had been looking for after implementing a plan aimed specifically at securing an away victory.

“We would have absolutely taken this last night if you had told us we would be 5.5-2.5 up.

"Obviously I'm disappointed right now I didn't hole that for a full point, but the guys have done so well today, and it's just about recovering and resting up and getting ready for tomorrow.”

On the crowd, the world No 2 added: “What we sort of expected. It was rowdy and lively. They made it difficult for us. But I felt like Shane and I, we handled that really well and dug in. Made some good swings and good putts when we needed to.”

FedEx Cup winner Fleetwood won both his matches, teaming up with Justin Rose to secure a hard-earned point in the afternoon, while LIV Golf star Jon Rahm was another double victor on day one.

“Yeah, massive,” said Donald of the contribution from his top guns. “Jon is an incredible leader for us on and off the course, mostly with the way he plays.

“Rory is probably slightly more vocal in the team room and has talked about what the Ryder Cup means and the disappointment we saw in Wisconsin (where Europe suffered a record 19-9 hammering four years ago) and how much he relishes Ryder Cups and the opportunity to try and be a part of them and hopefully be on winning teams. He's made it quite clear that one of his big goals was to win an away Ryder Cup again.”

McIlroy and Fleetwood are out again in Saturday morning’s foursomes and will be against Morikawa and English on this occasion (12.26pm, UK time).