Rory McIlroy began his challenge for a fourth Wells Fargo Championship title with an impressive three-under-par 68 at Quail Hollow on his 34th birthday.
Returning to competition for the first time since missing the cut at the Masters last month, McIlroy posted four birdies and a solitary bogey.
The world number three’s opening round left him two behind a group of three early clubhouse leaders.
He withdrew from April’s RBC Heritage after his disappointment at Augusta.
The Northern Irishman explained earlier this week that he sat out that PGA Tour event for his “mental and emotional wellbeing”.
McIlroy started Thursday’s round on the 10th hole and got up-and-down from a greenside bunker to birdie his first hole of the day.
He picked up a further shot at the 14th and then recovered to avoid dropping a shot at the 15th after finding himself in another greenside bunker.
The four-time major winner saved par from off the green on 16 and 17 and again on the second and the third.
McIlroy’s only bogey came after he drove out of bounds on the par-five seventh.
He thumped his provisional drive 352 yards down the middle of the fairway, hit his 170-yard approach to 24 feet and narrowly missed a putt that would have saved his par.
The European Ryder Cup player got the shot back on his last hole of the day, the par-4 ninth, sinking an 11-foot birdie putt to finish three under.
Kevin Streelman, Kyoung-Hoon Lee and Taylor Moore fired 66s to share the early lead.
