• Maybank Malaysian Open, Round One

Rory makes impressive recovery, Schwartzel struggles

Rory McIlroy proved his resilience by carding a 69 © Getty Images

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Rory McIlroy bounced back from his Masters meltdown in style, carding a three-under 69 on the first day of the Maybank Malaysian Open in Kuala Lumpur.

In the process, McIlroy began the process of banishing the demons of Augusta, where he started the final day in a four-shot lead before ending up ten strokes behind winner Charl Schwartzel.

As if that hadn't done enough to disrupt his preparations for Malaysia, McIlroy then suffered the inconvenience of discovering his clubs had gone missing in transit. But they turned up, and so did much of the Ulsterman's best golf - disproving Colin Montgomerie's theory that it would take the 21-year-old at least a month to get over The Masters heartbreak.

If there were any lingering nerves, McIlroy overcame them in style on the front nine, turning in 33 thanks to birdies at two, four and five. As at Augusta, he came unstuck on the way in - although this was nowhere near as spectacular a collapse - but there was just one bogey, and he closed with a delightful chip to three feet at the mammoth, 634-yard 18th.

"I got off to a good start, which helped," McIlroy told Sky Sports. "I hadn't seen the golf course before today, so three-under is a pretty good score. Playing right away [after Augusta] definitely helped."

Alexander Noren heads the field at eight-under, with Italian prodigy Matteo Manassero two shots back, and Jeev Milkha Singh and Darren Beck at five-under.

World No. 1 Martin Kaymer, who didn't make the cut at Augusta, lurks ominously at two-under - despite succumbing to two bogeys. Meanwhile, Schwartzel showed understandable signs of fatigue, stumbling round in 73.

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