Rory McIlroy stormed to the front of the 143rd Open Championship with a sizzling six under par 66 in superb scoring conditions at Royal Liverpool.

The double Major winner didn’t drop a shot in posting three birdies over his front nine and then the same number of birdies over his inward nine to lead golf’s oldest Major by a stroke.

It is the second occasion McIlroy has led golf’s oldest major having shot a new Old Course record 63 on the first day of the 2010 Open Championship at St. Andrews.

Rory McIlroy leads the 143rd Open Championship but the big fear now is a Friday fright. (Photo – Fran Caffrey/www.golffile.ie)

However fresh in everyone’s memory is McIlroy’s second  round in last week’s Scottish Open when he went from shooting a new Royal Aberdeen course record of a seven under par 64 to shoot a second day score that was 14 shots higher.

And we remember McIlroy earlier this year of going low in Honda Classic but losing out in the victory play-off while the former World No. 1 went out low on day one of the 2014 Memorial but faded from any glory hope.

“Any time you shoot 66 at the Open Championship, you’re going to be pleased,” said McIlroy.

“”We had perfect scoring conditions out there this morning. There wasn’t much wind early on and there were plenty of opportunities to make birdies and I was able to take a few of them.

“It’s another great start and, yeah, looking forward to getting back out there tomorrow.

“Whenever I go out and play on Thursdays there’s not really many expectations.

“You’re going out there and you’re trying to find a rhythm and you’re just trying to play your way into the round,” he added.

“When you go back out on Friday after a good score you know what you can do, so you’re going out with some expectations compared to Thursday. I think I’ve just got to approach it like that, start off trying to hit solid shots the first few holes and play my way into the round, just like I did today.”