Rory McIlroy at BMW Championship 2015: Thursday Leaderboard Score and Reaction

Rory McIlroy was back on the links for the first time in two weeks, teeing off at the BMW Championship on Thursday and posting a strong three under through 12 holes before his day got cut off early because of poor weather. 

While that score would normally be good to sit near the top of the leaderboard, Conway Farms Golf Club in Lake Forest, Illinois, was generous, with Jason Day shooting 10 under through 17 holes before the rains came.     

McIlroy isn't out of the mix, sitting in a tie for 12th, but Day's recent hot streak will make it hard for anyone to catch him when play resumes on Friday. 

Here's the full leaderboard after officials suspended play in the first round at the BMW Championship:

There will be a lot of golf played on Thursday, as PGA Tour Media on Twitter announced how the weather impacts the schedule:

McIlroy started Thursday on the back nine, seemingly content to take what the course was giving him early, but he went on a run starting at No. 14 with three birdies in five holes to make the turn at three under.

A bogey on his 10th hole would be McIlroy's only blemish, and he salvaged things with a birdie on his 12th hole before weather got in his way. Even though there are six holes to be finished, this is an encouraging start for the world's top-ranked player. 

McIlroy hasn't shot under 70 in the first round of a PGA Tour event since The Players Championship in May, though he only finished eighth in that tournament after 72 holes. He did bounce back with a win at the Wells Fargo Championship the next week, which remains his last victory in 2015. 

With the rise of Day and Jordan Spieth throughout this year, McIlroy said before this week's event that he feels almost like a forgotten man in the battle for No. 1, per SkySports.com:

"

I feel like I've been flying under the radar a little bit for the last three months just because I've only played a couple of times. I feel like I'm sort of not being talked about as much, and that's not a bad thing. In that time period, Jason has done very, very well, Jordan has kept up his pretty good play, apart from the last couple of weeks, but that's golf, that happens. ...

"

Day's performance through 17 holes on Thursday won't exactly change the conversation, but in some ways it's an enviable spot for McIlroy to be in. It's hard for the world's best player to be an underdog or "off the radar" in any event.

Per KenPom Golf, no one else is even close to Day in terms of win probability heading into the second day:

McIlroy can just relax and play his game without needing to face the scrutiny often associated with a marquee player. It's a cliche, but there is something freeing about being so far off the radar that there's no reason to overthink anything. 

It's not like the tournament is over. McIlroy still has 60 holes to play and has gotten stronger later, with final-round scores under 70 in each of his last four tournaments. The key will be staying in the mix on Friday. He struggled with that two weeks ago at the Deutsche Bank Championship, firing a second-round 74. 

The weather could make the course play more difficult on Friday, so McIlroy will have to be on point to avoid another second-day struggle and make a move to make sure no one is overlooking him anymore.