Rory McIlroy "turmoil" blamed for horror round as he sits TEN shots off PGA Championship lead

Rory McIlroy endured a horror opening round at the with the "turmoil" of the Masters blamed for his slow start. The Northern Irishman arrived at Quail Hollow off the back of mass hype, having just .

However, the stellar form he showed at Augusta eluded him as he carded a three-over-par round of 74 in Charlotte, North Carolina. That is despite McIlroy boasting a stellar record at the course, winning there on numerous occasions in the past.

The Masters champion rocked up as the hot favourite with people talking up a surge of Major victories, but instead the 36-year-old posted his worst ever round at Quail Hollow and, as he sits 10 shots off the lead, he may already have given himself too much to do.

The PGA Championship is the only Major McIlroy has won twice, but former captain admits coming down from the high of triumphing at the Masters was always going to be a huge challenge.

He said: "There's been a lot of turmoil this last month - all positive turmoil with his success [at the Masters]. Of course he is, he won the Grand Slam - a lifelong achievement for every single one of these players. But is that a great place to then reset? Is he in that place mentally?

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"It's really difficult when you're coming off such a high. Enjoying all of the success of the last month maybe is not conducive to putting him in the right mindset. Nonetheless, he's not out of this tournament. He'll come at it again, and maybe now he's had a bad score that kickstarts him over the next couple days.”

McIlroy played with and Xander Schauffele - the ’s top three ranked players - but they all endured a horror show on the 16th as they all made double-bogey. Scheffler, who finished on two-under, joked: “I kept the honour with making a double on a hole, and I think that will probably be the first and last time I do that in my career!”

This year's Ryder Cup captain, Luke Donald, has put himself in the mix by carding a round of four under par to leave him three shots off the lead. He played down his presence at the tournament, but was glad to perform on a course that wasn't necessarily for him.

He said: "I'm here only because I'm captain of the European Ryder Cup team. I wouldn't be in this field otherwise. Bogey-free in a major championship on a course that you wouldn't have thought would be ideal for me is always fun."

Venezuela's Jhonattan Vegas birdied five of his final six holes to set the pace at seven under and is two clear of American Ryan Gerard and Australian Cam Davis.