In-form Danny Willett, Argentine Emiliano Grillo and Denmark’s Søren Kjeldsen shared the clubhouse lead midway through the opening round of the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open Hosted by the Rory Foundation.
In testing conditions at Royal County Down Grillo, England’s Willett – currently second in The Race to Dubai – and Kjeldsen, who had a top-ten finish in Spain on his 40th birthday two weeks ago, carded two under par rounds of 69.
World Number One and tournament host Rory McIlroy at least retained his sense of humour despite a difficult first round containing nine bogeys and no birdies.
An opening 80 left him last of the 78 morning starters and in need of a brilliant second round on Friday to avoid a third straight missed cut in the event.
"It was not quite as difficult as I made it look," admitted McIlroy after an opening round played in cold, blustery conditions and the occasional rain shower.
"It's disappointing because I want to go out there and play well, not just for myself but for a lot of other people. I'll just have to pick myself up and go out there tomorrow and shoot a good one.
"My goal will be to make some birdies, make my first birdie of the tournament at some point."
McIlroy was supported by large galleries from the sell-out 20,000 crowd and added: "I want to give them something to cheer about and not just get sympathy claps as I got coming off the ninth green.
"I felt like I put myself in good positions off the tee but I was caught between trying to play two ways. I was hitting it well on the range, keeping it down and hitting half shots, but the wind was not up that much on the course and that led to missing greens, which led to lots of eight to 12-foot putts for par, which led to missing all of them."
McIlroy was not alone in struggling, with playing partner and US Open champion Martin Kaymer also failing to record a single birdie in a round of 79, although the final member of the marquee group, Rickie Fowler, carded a 71 to lie two shots off the lead shared by Danny Willett and Soren Kjeldsen.
Willett, McIlroy and Fowler all played in the 2007 Walker Cup at Royal County Down, which the United States won by a single point, but Willett admitted:
"It's a lot different playing this course in a stroke play event. In match play you could just pick the ball up if you were having a bad hole!"
Fowler's round could have been even better as he birdied the tenth and 11th before three-putting from 20 feet for par on the 12th, but the 26 year old also spared a thought for playing partner McIlroy.
"It's tough to see," said Fowler, who finished second behind McIlroy in The Open at Hoylake last year and was fifth in 2011. "You don't want to see someone struggle and not the start that he was looking for this week. I'm assuming that it'll be a little different day tomorrow for him.
"That's golf. We've all been through it, and I'm sure we'll go out and have some fun, hopefully feed off of each other tomorrow."
Out on the course France’s Alex Levy swiftly established a two shot lead when he followed an eagle on the par five first with birdies on the sixth and eighth as he turned in a flawless four under par 31.
