Rory McIlroy went straight from the final green to the driving range in a bid to find the solution to the issues that saw him slump to an opening round of 76 at The Players Championship.
Bay Hill has a reputation for sapping energy from those fighting it out at the finish on Sunday, while a seven-hour board meeting to discuss the future direction of the PGA Tour would not have been the ideal preparation for The Players.
Whether he was drained, mentally or physically, was not clear but he was way short of his best – particularly off the tee.
McIlroy is one of the finest drivers in the game, but he hit only six of 14 fairways on Thursday.
Sawgrass is not a course to be playing when out of position, and McIlroy paid for his wayward form off the tee.
First Round Leaderboard
- 1. Chad Ramey – eight-under
- 2. Collin Morikawa – seven-under
- T3. Taylor Pendrith – five-under
- T3. Ben Griffin- five-under
- T3. Justin Suh- five-under
- T6. Min Woo Lee – four-under
- T6. Denny McCarthy – four-under
- T6. Christiaan Bezuidenhout – four-under
- T6. Adam Svensson – four-under
- T6. Scottie Scheffler – four-under
- T6. Sam Burns – four-under
He bookended his round with a pair of sixes, a double-bogey on his first hole and a bogey on his final hole.
There were precious few positives in between, aside from a stunning escape from the pine straw on the 16th, and he will need a vast improvement to make the weekend.
“The three-putt on 16 was probably the one that sort of stopped any momentum,” McIlroy said. “I hit a really good shot out of the pine straw there and didn’t capitalise on that, and making bogey on one and bogey on three … was tough to get it back from there.”
Making the cut will be the aim for McIlroy, chasing down the leader looks like a pipedream.
While McIlroy went round in 76 blows for a share of 119th place when play was suspended due to darkness with a few players still out on the course, Chad Ramey was 12 shots better as a round of 64 took him to the top of the leaderboard at eight-under.
The intimidating sight of Collin Morikawa is looming large in Ramey’s mirrors. After missing the cut at Bay Hill, the two-time major champion was back to his imperious best with the irons and he served a clinic from the fairways in a round of 65.
Scottie Scheffler was the best of the marquee group, which also contained McIroy and Jon Rahm (one-under), as the American shot 68 to sit well in contention at four-under.
The 17th is one of the most famous holes in golf, and the front-right pin in no wind was a gift for the players.
A number of players went close to holes in one, but only one achieved it – with Hayden Buckley thrilling the crowd with his ace.
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