Rory McIlroy embracing the challenge at Pinehurst

Rory McIlroy was reaping the rewards of embracing the U.S. Open as an opening 65 handed him a share of the lead after day one at Pinehurst.

The Northern Irishman romped to a record-breaking win for his first Major Championship victory in the event 13 years ago but missed four of his next seven cuts in the United States' national open.

A tie for ninth in 2019 then started a run of five consecutive top tens, with his result improving every year until his runner-up finish last season.

After a bogey-free opening effort over the notoriously difficult No.2 Course, the 35-year-old will be hoping to go one better on Sunday but he credited much of his success to a change in mindset five years ago.

"If you look at the U.S. Open that I did win in '11, it was more like a PGA Championship rather than a typical U.S. Open set-up," he said.

"I really don't think I embraced U.S. Open set-ups probably ten years into my U.S. Open career. Played my first one in '09 and I think I really changed my mindset around them in 2019, that one in Pebble.

"Since then I've also started to enjoy this style of golf a lot more. It's a lot different than the golf that we play week in, week out. 

"I really appreciate that and I've started to appreciate golf course architecture more and more as the years have went on and I've started to read more about it and understand why golf course architects do certain things and design courses the way that they do.

"Just becoming more of a student of the game again and I think because of that I've started to embrace golf courses like this and set-ups like this."

While the U.S. Open presents a unique challenge in the game of golf, McIlroy still thinks there are aspects of other styles of play that can help you thrive.

The four-time Major winner was raised playing links golf and feels there are elements of that upbringing that can help him this week.

"It sort of brings me back to links golf when I was a kid a little bit," he said. "The greens are a bit more sort of slopey and there's a bit more movement on them. But there's options.

"You can chip it. You can putt it. I'd love if we played more golf courses like this."

The World Number Three holed from seven feet for a birdie on the fourth and chipped in from short of the green for another on the next to turn in 33.

He got down in two putts from off the green at the par-five tenth and then put an approach to 11 feet at the 16th and holed a 20-footer on the last.

McIlroy, who started the 2011 U.S. Open, 2012 US PGA Championship and 2014 Open with a bogey-free round and went on to win all three, said: “I went through a run there for a while where my starts at Major Championships weren’t very good.

“Probably got myself a little too worked up at the start of the week.

“But back to the (US) PGA I opened with a five under there at Valhalla. Even going all the way back to this tournament last year, I opened with a low one. It wasn’t quite as low as Rickie (Fowler) and Xander (Schauffele), but it was nice to open up with a low one and feel like you’re right in the tournament from the first day.

“Certainly the Major Championships that I’ve won or the ones that I’ve played well at, I’ve always seemed to get off to a good start, and it’s nice to get off to another one.

“My short game was good early on. I chipped in at five and had a really good up-and-down on six and on eight. But apart from that, I think I hit every other green. It was a really controlled round of golf.”