Rory McIlroy content after carding first-round 69 at U.S. Open - ESPN

SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. — When Rory McIlroy crested the steep hill that leads to the ninth green at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club and finished with a second straight bogey for a 1-under 69 on Thursday, any frustration he might have had was faint.

After all, the last time McIlroy played a first round of the U.S. Open at this venue, he shot 80 and went on to miss the cut.

«I think with the conditions today, anything under par or anything around even par is a good score,» McIlroy said after his round. «It was a day to really just keep yourself in the tournament and not shoot yourself out of it, which is exactly what I did eight years ago here.»

In 2018, a 29-year-old McIlroy bounced back with a second-round 70, but the damage had been done. He left Shinnecock Hills with a third straight missed cut at the U.S. Open and headed to the Travelers Championship. It was there that he had a sudden realization.

«I remember feeling so much in my comfort zone going to [Travelers] and thinking to myself, 'I've got this backwards,'» he said. «I should be in my comfort zone at Shinnecock and not here.»

By the end of 2018, as he flew back from Dubai, McIlroy said his realization led him to write a clear directive in his journal.

«I wrote in it that from 2019 going forward, I'm going to build my game to compete at the major championships and excel at the toughest tests that we have,» McIlroy said.

Since 2018, McIlroy has done just that, especially at the U.S. Open. In six of the past seven years, Mcllroy has finished inside the top 10. Last year at Oakmont was his worst finish since 2018 as he stumbled into a T-19 finish.

«I needed to change my mindset,» McIlroy said. «It was an effort really… like it hasn't looked as if I've went and done a rebuild