Why does he make the task even more difficult? Each and every time?
Rory McIlroy doesn’t ever make it easy on himself when attempting to add the Masters to his collection of career Major wins; and, if a slow start has proven to be his Achilles heel in past efforts, it again reared its ugly head in this latest endeavour.
On a beautifully sunny day with little or no wind, which brought low scoring with no fewer than 36 players going sub-par in a field reduced to 86 due to the defections of Kevin Na (illness) and Will Zalatoris (injury), the Northern Irishman was put on the back foot again with a first round of level-par 72 that proved to be hard-earned.
Viktor Hovland, Jon Rahm and Brooks Koepka shared the first round lead after superb rounds of seven-under-par 65s but McIlroy – in this, his ninth attempt to complete the career Grand Slam – lost ground by standing still.
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Such slow starts have historically hurt McIlroy in his quest to add the Masters to his US Open, US PGA and British Open successes. And, having entered this 87th edition of the Masters in confident form, the world number three was out of sorts with his game: his driving at times wayward, his approach play often misfiring and, on occasion too, his putter failing to do his command.
The upshot was a battling round of level par which featured five birdies, a double-bogey and three bogeys to lie in tied-37th position when his work was done and, seven strokes adrift of the leading trio, facing another uphill battle to get into contention if he is to finally lay claim to a green jacket.
In recent years, the first round has been the ruin of McIlroy. In fact, this 72 is actually the best opening round he has recorded in the past five years: 73 (2019), 75 (2020), 76 (2021), 73 (2022) and now a 72 (2023). It is a stark statistical sequence, and while he responded strongly last year to work his way to runner-up behind Scottie Scheffler, this latest game of catch-up is made potentially more difficult by a weather forecast that predicts poor weather for the remaining three days.
Despite suffering a double-bogey seven on the seventh, and turning in one-over 37, McIlroy got under par on the scorecard with birdies on the 15th and 16th only for a wild drive down the left on the 17th bringing him back to level. And, after driving into the fairway bunker on 18th and splashing out short of the green, he managed to get up and down to save par.
“I’m probably two or three shots behind how I’d like to be, considering how I played today. I think, if I had gotten the most out of my round, I would have shot 68 or 69. So a few shots back, but nothing that’s not insurmountable. I think I can go out there and give myself plenty of chances and play a great round of golf [in the second round] and get myself back on that big white scoreboard,” insisted McIlroy, who admitted some parts of his game were “untidy.”
He added: “It’s not disastrous. I just need to sort of tidy it all up . . . . obviously trying to get back into the thick of things.”
