'Awful' - Rory McIlroy looking to find fairways at BMW Championship

RTÉ News​

2 days ago

Tied for 15th after the opening round of the BMW Championship, competing against the top 70 in the FedEx Cup may not draw too many detractors, however, world number two and five-time major winner, Rory McIlroy, summed up his opening 18 in one word, "awful".
The Masters champions added that he drove the ball terribly but felt that he did well to claw his round back and finish the day on level par following his opening round 70.
Three bogeys in the opening six holes put McIlroy under pressure early on, however, he still managed to turn on just one over following a birdie on nine to add to his early bounceback on two, and he made it back-to-back on the tenth before finishing with eight straight pars.
McIlroy ended the day eight shots behind leader Robert MacIntyre, who posted a fine 62 to start his challenge, while England's Tommy Fleetwood, the nearly man of the current PGA Tour crop, is second on five under.
"Awful," said McIlroy, when asked how he would characterise his opening round. "I got off to a bad start. Sort of pieced it together a little bit in the middle of the round and clawed it back to even par. But drove the ball terribly.
"Then when you're sort of hitting out of the rough from the fairway bunkers here...when I hit the fairways, I give myself chances. I need to hit more fairways the next three days.
Nothing overly concerning for the County Down man, who feels that he can iron out his issues on the range and enjoy the final three rounds of the penultimate FedEx Cup event.
"I think a little bit of work on the range, committing to a shot shape maybe a little bit more," said McIlroy. "Seemed like when I tried to hit the driver left to right today, it was better. Maybe just stick with that over the course of the week and try to dial that in. But yeah, definitely just hit to hit a few more fairways.
"I feel like I tried to hit too many tee shots today pretty neutral. If I aimed up the left and hit a cut, it seemed to work a little bit better."
A lot of the pre-tournament talk was about the world number one and two going head to head for the opening two rounds, and while Scottie Scheffler outplayed the Holywood native by four shots, McIlroy had nothing but good things to say about playing with the reigning Open and PGA Championship winner.
"I love playing with Scottie. I always have," said McIlroy. "I like the cadence that he plays the game at. I like his rhythm. He doesn't really take a ton of time.
"I feel like there's guys that you like to get paired with, and there's guys, some guys that you don't. I've always enjoyed playing with Scottie."
Shane Lowry, who started his round with a trio of birdies before dropping a shot on the seventh, is alongside McIlroy on level par. It was a mixed bag on the back nine with birdies on 11 and 16 along with four bogeys.