Two days after confiscating a heckler’s phone, Rory McIlroy spent his opening round at the Players Championship wrestling with his own devices. It says much for his powers of recovery that he won the skirmish.
At five under par, he emerged in a strong position on the leaderboard, which is some achievement in light of the difficulties he caused himself with the driver.
Summing up how poor he was off the tee, consider one statistic: of 14 fairways, he hit only four, with the rest largely blocked out to the right. A month out from the Masters, there will be a nagging concern that this is his second straight week of struggles with the greatest weapon in his bag.
But his retrieval of lost causes was quite something in a 67 that left him one off the lead. It included a run of four birdies from the ninth, each on the back of trips to the rough, and peaked brilliantly with another at the last.
His drive had been buried deep in the trees on the right of the 18th fairway, but he fashioned a bump-and-run between the trunks from 160 yards and left himself a seven-footer for the three.
He said: ‘I certainly didn’t drive it the way I wanted to. I think with the greens being so receptive, you can get away with it a little bit but I’m not going to be able to get away with it for the rest of the week.’
Rory McIlroy had a tough day with his driver in the opening round of the Players Championship
But his putting got him out of trouble as he enjoyed a strong start to his campaign at Sawgrass
World No1 Scottie Scheffler also made a solid start as he carded a respectable 69
Even without Thursday’s tribulations this has been an eventful few days for McIlroy. It transpired that the fan who taunted him during practise on Tuesday was in fact a prominent US college golfer named Luke Potter, who is ranked 60th in the amateur world rankings. McIlroy declined to comment on the episode.
Lucas Glover, JJ Spaun and Camilo Villegas shared the first-round lead on six under, with Englishman Aaron Rai one behind McIlroy after a 68. Living barely five minutes from this course, where he plays five times a week during breaks from competition, has plainly helped the world No 24. His Ryder Cup prospects are growing by the week.
Less promise was found in the first-round performances of a few other European stalwarts. Matt Fitzpatrick, whose career has hit some turbulence, played the closing two holes in five over to finish with a 78, and Viktor Hovland carded an 80. Donald will be anxious about their form. Shane Lowry shot a level-par 72 and Bob MacIntyre was one behind Rai after a 69.
Scottie Scheffler, chasing a third straight win at the PGA Tour’s flagship event, carded 69.
