Rory McIlroy at Barclays 2016: Thursday Leaderboard Score and Twitter Reaction

After starting his day on the back nine, Rory McIlroy played himself into contention at the Barclays at Bethpage State Park in Farmingdale, New York, with a solid front nine, finishing his evening with an even-par 71 on Thursday.

That left him five strokes behind clubhouse leaders Patrick Reed and Martin Laird, who each shot five-unders on the day.

Here's the leaderboard:

McIlroy struggled on the back nine, with bogeys on Nos. 15 and 16. His approach game was on point after that, however.

The PGA Tour shared his brilliant approach on No. 18:

McIlroy impressed with strong back-to-back tee shots on Nos. 4 and 5, via the PGA Tour:

McIlroy was better for most of the front nine, with birdies on Nos. 2, 4 and 7. That brought him to one under par for the afternoon, though he promptly bogeyed No. 8 and parred No. 9 to leave him even for the round.

Golf Channel showed McIlroy's disappointing No. 8 in pictures:

It was a mixed bag for McIlroy, who hit 13 of 18 greens in regulation but finished with 1.923 putts per green in regulation, according to the PGA Tour's official website.

Justin Ray of Golf Channel had more on his putting:

That was the difference between McIlroy hovering near the top of the leaderboard and finding himself with at least a five-stroke deficit to overcome in the next three rounds. While McIlroy is talented enough to close the gap, he gave himself a tall task with a mediocre opening round.

Meanwhile, his play Thursday was overshadowed by his comments about the Olympic golf tournament in Rio de Janeiro. McIlroy had been critical about golf's place at the Olympics and didn't participate, but he backtracked Wednesday, per Nick Zaccardi of Olympic Talk:

"

It was nice to be proven wrong somewhat in terms of, like I thought golf was sort of going to get lost a little bit. It was away from the village; I thought it was going to, yeah, just sort of blend in with everything else and be, not forgotten about, but just one of a lot of sports that are there obviously. But to see the crowds and see the turnout, I was glad to be somewhat proven wrong.

"

Whether that means he'll participate in four years—or if golf's ardent fans will forgive him for his dismissive stance toward Olympic golf—remains unknown. But his mediocre play didn't change the conversation Thursday. 

You can follow Timothy Rapp on Twitter.