Rory McIlroy makes opening-round confession despite posting 67 and sharing lead on day one of Masters defence

Rory McIlroy got his Masters defence off to an impressive start but admitted he got more out of his opening round than he probably deserved.

The reigning champion at Augusta National shot a five-under par 67 to hold the joint clubhouse lead with Sam Burns.

His six birdies and solitary bogey represented his second lowest score on the opening day of the Masters and only the third time he had shot below 70 in his 18 appearances at the opening major of the season.

However, the world number two confessed a 70 would have perhaps been a fairer score after finding the fairway just twice during his opening nine holes. His drive on seven was particularly gruesome to watch as his tee shot landed on the 17th.

In the end, only five of 14 fairways (35.7 percent) were found on day one, leaving McIlroy to rely on his experience and short game around Augusta National to get the most out of his round.

‘I felt like I got a lot out of my round today,’ said McIlroy.

‘It started pretty scrappy. I was hitting out of the trees a little bit the first seven holes and then started to string some good swings together from the eighth hole onwards. I played those last 11 (holes) in five-under.

‘I settled into the round nicely even when I wasn't hitting fairways. I was trying to just get it up around the green and rely on my short game to get it up-and-down and move on. That's a big part of what you have to do around this golf course.

‘I stayed really patient when I needed to. Then as I said, made some good swings and played a good stretch of holes there to finish up the round.

‘The only thing I can think about that I maybe left out there is the putt I had on 17 for birdie.

‘Honestly, I couldn't have got a lot more out of my round. I feel like I leaned heavily on my experience out there to do that.’

McIlroy’s build-up to his Masters defence has incorporated a lot of obligations and engagements all reigning Masters champions undertake ahead of their maiden return to the scene of victory.

Some questioned whether those distractions would have affected his focus.

Yet it was never his intention to let that get in the way of his goal before a ball was struck - a solid start to his title defence.

‘My hope was to get off to a solid start. I feel like the way I played, five-under sort of exceeded where I thought I would be or what I wanted to do,’ added McIlroy.

‘I think a fair score for me today would have been like two-under maybe with some of the places I hit it.

‘But again, I used my head. I got up-and-down when I needed to. I didn't compound mistakes. Again, that's just a learning curve that you have to go through around here, and I did it well today.’