Rory McIlroy’s last act of the first round of the RBC Canadian Open was to roll in a birdie putt of 22-feet 10-inches, which brought a raise of his putter with one hand and a wave with the other. That closing birdie – on the eighth green, having started his round on the ninth due to the layout of St George’s Golf & Country Club in Toronto – gave him an opening score of four-under-par 66 and straight into the mix in defence of his title.
“A really solid start, a good score. I felt like the course was there to go even lower just from the rain and how receptive it was. Overall, I’m very happy, especially coming off a disappointing weekend at the Memorial. It was nice ot bounce back with a good score,” said McIlroy, who was three shots adrift of clubhouse leader Wyndham Clark.
McIlroy’s round – six birdies and two bogeys – started with an indifferent driver (missing the fairway on each of his opening four holes) but he managed to managed to sort it out as the round progressed.
“(The round) just solidified that I’m hitting the ball well and playing well and rolling it well. I putted pretty well at Memorial last week. It’s just a continuation of doing the things I have been doing well. I maybe didn’t put it in the fairway quite as much as I wanted to today, so that makes it tricky on some holes. But overall, just a really good day,” said McIlroy, aiming to make a successful defence of the title he won in 2019 before heading on to next week’s US Open at Brookline in Boston.
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Shane Lowry also made a solid start, with an opening round 67, three-under, that featured five birdies and two bogeys (both resulting from three-putts).
Lowry opened with a birdie on the Par 5 ninth, his starting hole, and added further birdies at the 11th and 15th and appeared to be in cruise control. However, he three-putted from 15 feet on the first hole, bouncing back with a birdie from 22 feet on the second and picking up another on the fourth, before three-putting for bogey on the Par 3 sixth.
On the DP World Tour, Jonathan Caldwell opened his defence of the Scandinavian Mixed tournament in Halmstad with a one-under-par 71 which was later equalled by Olivia Mehaffey. A group of four players – Matthieu Pavon, Craig Howie, Santiago Tarrio and Carolina Melgrati – shared the first round lead with rounds of 65.
