If scrappy for Rory McIlroy is five-under, he’ll take it. He’s watched major dreams die playing far better.
This wasn’t vintage by any means on the PGA Championship’s opening day. He didn’t drive the ball particularly well and, for a couple of holes in and around the turn, it looked like it might unravel. A familiar story was waiting to be told.
But that the 2014 champ at Valhalla was able to fashion a score at the same venue, one that has put him right in the picture and four shots behind leader Xander Schauffele, can only be a massive positive as he bids to break that often-talked-about 10-year major drought.
“I felt like it was pretty scrappy for the most part. I don’t really feel like I left many out there,” he said, reflecting on that opening 66. “I thought I got a lot out of my game today. Some good up-and-downs, the chip-in on 6. I had a little bit of a scrappy part around the turn there. Not really happy with how I played but at least happy with the score.”
Starting on the back nine, McIlroy was two-under early but then bogeyed 17 and found the water off the tee at 18. He made par and conceded it was a huge moment. He struck the flag with his approach on the 1st, made birdie, and then picked up three more shots – including chipping in, as he said, from the back of the 6th – on the way home.
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“I could have easily bogeyed 18 and been back to even par, and then again, that ball on 1 could have hit the flagstick and went anywhere,” he said.
“I could have made bogey from that. Potentially being 1-over par through 10, I’m 2-under. So it’s a three-shot difference. It’s a big swing.”
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Particularly key for McIlroy was a razor-sharp wedge game – a feature that’s often been described as a weakness in recent years. He’s currently 53rd strokes gained approaching the green, and 76th around the green, on this year’s PGA Tour stats board.
But the 35-year-old has been working with Butch Harmon, who once dialled in Dustin Johnson with the shorter clubs as he became a two-time major winner and World No.1.
Asked if there was anything he was going to that was helping him, McIlroy said: “I think just the same feelings I’ve been having with my golf swing, feeling strength in the club face on the way back, and then trying to keep that strength so that it forces me to really get out of the way on the downswing. That’s the thought with the wedges and with the irons.”
Three back of the surging Schauffele after the first round last week at Wells Fargo, McIlroy has another shot to find this time. But we all know what happened in Charlotte. And in a major career that’s seen fires extinguished far too early, it feels – on the scoreboard at least – he’s right where he wants to be.
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