Rory McIlroy didn’t fall in love with the Stadium course at TPC Sawgrass. Not at first sight, anyway; but – as the world number one – he has found a way to get around it and, in opening with a three-under-par 69 in the first round of the Players championship, McIlroy immediately eased his way into contention in the PGA Tour’s flagship event.
As Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama and Canadian David Hearn opened with a 67 to claim the clubhouse lead, the 26-year-old Northern Irishman confessed to the course starting to grow on him. “I’m learning to like it. Much like a lot of Pete Dye-designed golf courses, you have to learn to love them,” said McIlroy, who missed the cut on his first three appearances in the Players but who has had top-10s for the past two years.
The highlight of McIlroy’s round came on the par five 16th, his seventh, where he hit an eight-iron approach from 203 yards to six feet for an eagle three. “It’s much easier when you can hit in short irons,” he remarked matter-of-factly.
Certainly, McIlroy – coming in on the back of his WGC-Cadillac Matchplay championship victory in and in the second of a five-week tournament stretch that takes him up to the Irish Open later this month – seemed very relaxed and at ease in the company of Jordan Spieth.
Green jacket
McIlroy outscored Masters champion Spieth by six shots – 69 to 75 – in their little sideshow. Of the joking that went on between the pair out on the course, McIlroy quipped: “We were talking hairstyles. He has a green jacket, his hair can be whatever way he wants!”
McIlroy’s round featured that eagle on the 16th along with two birdies and a bogey. His second birdie of the round came on the eighth, his 17th, where rolled in a 12-footer.
“You have to be patient here. I’d a lot of pars on my card and you pick up birdies where you can. The first time I got here, I felt it’s a course where you should shoot 67, 68 every time. But it’s not really like that. It can jump up and bite you quickly.”
There was no urge to hit the range or the short game area after his round. “It’s about conserving energy. It is a long stretch of golf and I want to make sure I am 100 per cent focused when I am out there playing, there won’t be much off course activity in terms of practice,” said McIlroy.
If patience was the name of the game for McIlroy, Spieth was at odds with his game.
Future rival
“I’m looking for something in my alignment, I just didn’t trust it . . . . just a really, really poor day,” said Spieth, who struggled to a 75 that leaves him with work to do if he is to survive the midway cut.
Matsuyama – the 23-year-old Japanese player considered a potential future rival to McIlroy – opened with a 67 that gave him the clubhouse lead. But Matsuyama dismissed thoughts of being a rival to McIlroy or Spieth.
“I’m not even close to those guys, I need to practice more and hopefully play at the same level soon,” he said, although the evidence of his play so far this season would indicate that he genuinely is one of the game’s rising stars.
The key to Matsuyama’s round was a hot putter. He used it just 26 times. “I putted very well today. That was the difference . . . . probably starting from last week I started putting a little bit better, and it just carried over. I was very happy about that,” said Matsuyama, who was pursued by a pack that included Billy Horschel, Ben Martin and Troy Merritt.
Tiger Woods, playing for the first time since the Masters, hooked his opening two tee-shots and laboured for much of his round which included a double bogey after finding the water hazard on the eighth.
Woods was one over through 13 holes, although others endured a tougher time: Brooks Koepka included back-to-back quadruple bogeys, on the 17th and 18th, in a round of 78.
Pádraig Harrington opened with an adventurous 71, one under, that saw him go bogey-double bogey on the 17th and 18th holes, where he drove into water, only to recover on his homeward run with a sequence of three birdies in a row from the fourth to the sixth.
If anything, Shane Lowry’s maiden competitive round at Sawgrass was even more adventurous as the Offalyman opened with a 73, one over. Lowry’s front nine featured three birdies, three bogeys and a double-bogey on the 17th, where he put his tee shot into the lake.
However, Lowry showed resilience on the homeward run with back-to-back birdies on the second and third before he dropped a shot on the seventh after his approach found a greenside bunker. Graeme McDowell also opened with a 73.
Darren Clarke’s interest in the championship lasted just 11 holes. The Ulsterman sustained a wrist injury on the range when warming up and was ten over par through 11 holes before calling it a day. Clarke had two double bogeys and a triple bogey in his incomplete round.
