FORMER US Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick’s form continued its upward trend after a four-under-par 67 gave him a share of the lead on the first day of The Open at Royal Portrush today.

As he was finishing, home favourite Rory McIlroy was only just teeing off and, while he avoided the sort of nightmare start he endured here in 2019 when he went out of bounds at the first for a quadruple bogey, the Northern Irishman missed a short par putt, much to the disappointment of the thousands of who had come to see golf’s newest member of the career Grand Slam club.

Fitzpatrick was eighth in May’s US PGA Championship, but that was a high point in an otherwise disappointing season until back-to-back top-10 finishes in his last two events pointed towards an upturn.

And that timing was impeccable as he got off to a flying start with a 22-foot eagle putt at the second hole, although he immediately bogeyed the next.

Two more birdies were to follow, but the highlight was holing out for birdie from the steep bank on the treacherous Calamity Corner par-three 16th which put him into a share of the lead set by world number 354 Jacob Skov Olesen and China’s Li Haotong.