“It's a double-edged sword” – Rory McIlroy gets 100% real on playing without 'in-built advantages' at Houston Open

Rory McIlroy shared his experience of playing at the Texas Children's Houston Open 2025. The Northern Irishman joined the stellar field of this week's PGA Tour event, which already started with its first round on Thursday, March 27.

McIlroy has not played in the event in over a decade but had a decent start to his game in the opening round. During the press conference of the Texas Children's Houston Open on March 27, the World No. 2 was asked about his experience of playing in the event and at the golf course for the first time. In response, McIlroy said, via Tee Scripts:

"It's a double-edged sword. It's nice to come to places that you don't know and having to learn a new golf course is sort of -- I don't do it all that often anymore so it's nice to be able to do it again.

"But then there are in-built advantages to going back to a course for a lot of years and just knowing where to miss it, where not to, especially on a course like this where the green complexes are quite -- you sort of have to know them and know where the misses are. Yeah, I mean, I think a little bit of experience around this course isn't a bad thing and I'm sort of just trying to learn as I go along," he added.

The Texas Children's Houston Open's first round, however, was suspended on Thursday because of the darkness, and some players who remained to complete their round will resume the game on Friday, March 28, at 9:30 a.m. ET. After the semi-finished opening round, Alejandro Tosti took the lead in the game in a tie with Ryan Gerard, Keith Mitchell, and Taylor Pendrith.

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A look into Rory McIlroy's performance at Texas Children's Houston Open

Rory McIlroy started his campaign on the tenth hole of the Memorial Park Golf Course on Thursday, March 27, on the tenth tee hole. He started the game by making pars on the first four holes, followed by a bogey on the 14th.

After a tough time on the front nine, McIlroy improved in the back nine and carded two birdies and a bogey for a round of even-par 70. He settled in T57 place after the first 18 holes of the tournament.

Rory McIlroy has been pretty impressive on the PGA Tour this season. He started the campaign at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am with a victory. He then played at the Genesis Invitational and tied for 17th place, followed by T15 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, and finally won The Players Championship before teeing off this week at the Texas Children's Houston Open.