Irish Open: Rory McIlroy is four adrift of leader Shubhankar Sharma after two late birdies

Former champion Rory McIlroy conjured up two birdies in the last two holes as he finished four shots adrift of leader Shubhankar Sharma at the Irish Open.

The 34-year-old, who won the title in 2016 at The K Club, admitted he did not have much time to practice beforehand and was hitting loose shots at the start of the day.

McIlroy ended with an opening 69, while Shubhankar Sharma carded a flawless 65 to give him a one-shot lead over Jordan Smith, Ross Fisher, Marcel Schneider, Kristian Johannessen and Ryder Cup vice captain Thomas Bjorn.

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"It's hard to say I'm rusty when I've only had a week off but I just haven't had a chance to practice much," McIlroy said.

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"I managed my game well and scraped it around in three under which is nice and sort of gets me in the tournament.

"It's more that I have not been able to hit a ton of balls.

"I'm hitting good shots but it's all about knowing your patterns and where you're missing it and where to aim and where not to aim and just being a little unsure over a couple of shots."

McIlroy has not been on top form after injuring his lower back ahead of the Tour Championship where he was chasing consecutive FedExCup titles.

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However, the four-time major champion insists it's not an issue on the course.

"I'm hitting good shots but it's all about knowing your patterns and where you're missing it and where to aim and where not to aim and just being a little unsure over a couple of shots," he said.

Ryder Cup vice captain Bjorn, who has not played competitively since June due to injuries, carded seven birdies and a bogey on the ninth.

"I said to my caddie this morning when we walked to the first tee, let's try to see if we can break 90, it was that kind of day," Bjorn said.

Adrian Meronk narrowly missed out on captain Luke Donald's pick for Europe's Ryder Cup team, with Ludvig Aberg, Tommy Fleetwood, Nicolai Hojgaard, Shane Lowry, Justin Rose and Sepp Straka completing the line-up.

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The Pole is defending his Irish Open title and won two other DP World Tour events in the last 14 months.

Meronk matched McIlroy's 69 but former Open champion Shane Lowry went one better with a 68.

Lowry, who carded seven birdies and three bogeys, was still an amateur when he won the Irish Open
in 2009.

The Open in Ireland would be 'fantastic'

McIlroy believes the R&A are "seriously looking" at staging the Open Championship outside the UK for the first time, with Portmarnock a possible venue.

"I think they are seriously looking at it. I think it would be fantastic," McIlroy said.

"I was looking forward to Portrush but (concerned) in terms of how it would do commercially; there's so many other considerations to hosting a major championship apart from it being a great golf course.

"There has to be a lot of stuff that makes sense, but having a course that's so close to a major city, so close to a major airport, having a great golf course, I think it would be amazing."

See McIlroy in action throughout the week at the Horizon Irish Open live on Sky Sports. Live coverage begins on Thursday from 1pm on Sky Sports Golf.

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