The world number two got his early morning shift off to a stellar start with a birdie on his opening hole but recorded six bogeys to go with his five birdies.
McIlroy struggled with his short putts throughout the morning and pointed to his putting as the reason for his underwhelming opening round which, whilst it doesn't leave him in danger of missing the cut for the weekend, has him well out of contention for the title at this stage.
The Northern Irishman also said he struggled somewhat with a "curtailed warm-up" owing to the early tee time of 7:05am local.
"It was really tricky conditions," McIlroy told reporters after his round.
"It started to get really gusty, those last few holes for us, so yeah, it's going to be a tough one for the boys out there this afternoon.
"It felt like I could have shot under par or shot something in the sixties, but it doesn't look like anyone's going to get too far away today. So I limited the damage and hopefully conditions are a little better over the next few days and could make a run."
One man who did indeed get far away from the chasing pack is 2024 Australian PGA Championship winner Elvis Smylie, whose three-ball was one group behind McIlroy and drawing some spectators away from the star-studded trio of McIlroy, Adam Scott and Min Woo Lee.
Whilst not discounting his chances of coming back to reclaim the title he won in 2013 as a 24-year-old, McIlroy says he'll need to significantly improve his short game to get back into the mix.
"I need to putt better," he explained on Thursday morning.
"I can feel myself struggling on the greens a little bit Tuesday and Wednesday just to see reads, they're quite tricky to read in spots, so I struggled with the putting early on today. Holed some good ones. I think I was better from outside 25 feet than I was from inside five, so work on that a little bit."
"Yeah, I need to putt better, but yeah, I made enough birdies, but I just need to limit the mistakes a little bit but it felt okay. It was good to get one round done and not feel like I'm too far back."