Rory McIlroy has enjoyed a great start to the 2022 Open at St Andrews, the 150th edition of the prestigious tournament.

He ended the opening round six under with a 66 shot run through the 18 holes, finishing just two shots off the leader, Cameron Young.

When he won The Open in 2014, he started that campaign with a 66, maybe that’s a sign for McIlroy who produced his best Open score since that year.

McIlroy did have a disastrous moment though when a wayward drive hit a spectator, fracturing his hand.

Ironically, he hit Charlie Kane who works for the PGA Tour as part of their social media team and he was just at the championship as a spectator rather than for work, bet he wishes he was in work!

After the incident, Kane went to St Andrew’s Community Hospital where they confirmed his hand was fractured.

He took to Twitter to share the graphic images of his hand, captioning his post with: “Fractured hand after Rory McIlroy’s drive landed on my knuckle. He shouted fore. I did not heed the warning. #TheOpen.”

ST ANDREWS, SCOTLAND - JULY 14: Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland reacts after a putt on the 12th during Day One of The 150th Open at St Andrews Old Course on July 14, 2022 in St Andrews, Scotland. (Photo by Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images)

That’s a clear message to anyone attending St Andrews for The Open, don’t ignore the calls of fore when the golfers give you the warning.

It can always be a dangerous pastime watching golf live, you never know when a wayward shot is coming, clearly, they can do serious damage too if you’re unfortunate enough to be struck by the ball.

That one shot didn’t hamper the Northern Irishman like previously mentioned who is within a serious shout of making the business end of the tournament.

Afterwards, he spoke to Sky Sports, telling the broadcaster: “I played well. Very solid. I think everyone knows, on this golf course, you have to make your score going out and I did that.

“I started off tremendously with a bonus at the first; little bit of adrenaline with that second shot and hit it a bit far.

“Birdied the par five, birdied a couple of those short par fours with a wedge in my hand and then, on the back nine, even though it is down wind, it got so tricky.

“I birdied the holes that I should have birdied today and only made one mistake.

“The way this golf course is playing, how firm and bouncy and tricky it is, it is all about limiting your mistakes, and one bogey out there today, it was good.”