Rory McIlroy is 18 holes into his PGA Championship, and there are a handful of ways you could describe what went down in a four-over-74 round at Aronimink Golf Club that has him tied for 105th.
Poor scoring? There was that. Starting on No. 10, McIlroy played the back nine at even par, and he was even through 14 holes. Then he bogeyed 6. Then he bogeyed 7. Then he bogeyed 8. Then he bogeyed 9. According to stats guru and GOLF.com contributor Justin Ray, Thursday was McIlroy’s 990th PGA Tour round, including majors — and the six-time major winner had previously never made bogey or worse on each of his four closing holes.
Could you also call McIlroy’s round an ugly driving day? You could. He hit just five of 14 fairways, which tied him for 139th in the 156-player field.
“I started missing fairways,” McIlroy said. “I missed the fairway right on 4, the fairway right on 6, the fairway right on 7, fairway right on 9. From there, it’s hard — you know, I didn’t have great angles either. Then obviously you start missing it just off the edges of these greens, it gets tricky.
“Yeah, I felt like I did OK. I made that birdie on 5 to get back to even par after the soft bogey on 4, then I just got on that bogey train at the end.”
What’s happening off the tee?
“I’ve sort of got, like I miss it right, and then I want to try to correct it,” McIlroy said. “And then I’ll overdo it, and I’ll miss it left. It’s a little bit of back and forth that way. So that’s pretty frustrating, especially when I pride myself on driving the ball well.
“I just need to try to figure it out. I honestly thought I’d figured it out. Coming in here, I hit it well on Sunday at Quail Hollow, and then hit it good at home on Monday. Then … hit it decent yesterday.
“Just sort of, once I get under the gun, it just seems like it starts to go a little bit wayward on me.”
Was Aronimink itself behind McIlroy’s play? It might have been. Several players struggled. The leaders are only at three-under.
“I wasn’t expecting it to be as windy today as it was,” McIlroy said. “I think it’s the breezy conditions that are sort of making the scoring what it is. It’s hard to get the ball close. Some of the pins are tucked away. You’ve got — say you have a pin tucked over on the left side of the green and the wind’s coming off the left, it’s hard to get it over there.
“Probably just seeing a lot of guys hit it to 20 and 30 feet. They’re good shots. It’s just hard to make a lot of those putts.”
But how would McIlroy describe his opening round?
In his press conference, he was asked that exact question by moderator Greg Dillard.