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Padraig Harrington took advantage of marginally easier conditions in the afternoon to share the first round lead with fellow late starter Max Kieffer at the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open Hosted by the Rory Foundation.
Former winner Harrington carded a four under par 67 at Royal County Down, which was only matched by German Kieffer in the final group.
Harrington, who won the Honda Classic in March on the US PGA Tour, is looking to end a winless stretch on The European Tour that goes back to the 2008 US PGA Championship.
The 43 year old from Dublin was one over par after ten holes before carding five birdies in the next six to finish level with Kieffer and one shot ahead of former Ryder Cup team-mate Søren Hansen.
"After nine or ten holes I thought to myself 'C'mon, we've got to hit a good shot, no need to be afraid,'" said Harrington, who lasted just two holes at Wentworth last week before pulling out with a shoulder injury, but received intensive treatment and narrowly missed out on qualifying for the US Open Championship four days later.
"I know from experience now that I'm in a position where there's many ways of competing in this tournament. I've two options; play great from now on and try and get away from the field or play average and fight it out on Sunday afternoon."
Kieffer had an eagle on the long 12th and reached five under at one stage only to bogey the eighth – his penultimate hole.
“I played good, and I think the key was today to hole some putts,” said the 24 year old, who is still searching for a maiden European Tour title two years after beng pipped in a marathon play-off for the Open de Espaa by Raphal Jacquelin.
“I had two three-putts from off the green on the front nine, but then I made two long putts after that, so that really like kept the momentum up. That was really nice.
“It's a long week. It's a tough golf course. Some of the best players in the world, they struggle to shoot par around here, so it's going to be an interesting next three days, I think.”
McIlroy carded nine bogeys and no birdies in an opening 80 as only seven of the 78 morning starters broke par.
"It was not quite as difficult as I made it look," McIlroy admitted with a wry smile after an opening round played in cold, blustery conditions and the occasional rain shower.
"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 I was caught between trying to play two ways. 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 has pledged to donate all of his prize money this week to his charitable foundation, while his association with the event ensured a top-class field and a sell-out crowd of 20,000 each day.
"It's disappointing because I want to go out there and play well, not just for myself but for a lot of other people," McIlroy added. "I'll just have to pick myself up and go out there tomorrow and shoot a good one. I want to give the fans something to cheer about and not just get sympathy claps as I got coming off the ninth green.
"My goal will be to make some birdies, make my first birdie of the tournament at some point. I've missed the cut the last two years so I don't want to make it three in a row. I want to at least go out there tomorrow and fight for it, try to claw my way back towards the cut line and if I can sneak in there, that'll be great."
Playing alongside McIlroy, Rickie Fowler carded an opening 71 in his first outing since winning the Players Championship at Sawgrass, while Luke Donald went one better with a 70.
Donald dropped out of the Official World Golf Ranking's top 60 on Monday to miss out on qualifying for the US Open, but could claim one of three places up for grabs in The Open at St Andrews by finishing in the top ten here.
"I'm trying not to think about that too much, I'm just trying to play a solid tournament and get some consistency," the former World Number One said.
