MCILROY SEVEN OFF THE PACE AT THE PLAYERS
Defending champion Rory McIlroy opened with a two-over 74 at THE PLAYERS Championship at Sawgrass. (Photo: PGA Tour)
By Paul Gallagher
Rory McIlroy completed his opening round of THE PLAYERS Championship at Sawgrass with a two-over 74 as the defending champion manages a back injury.
Earlier in the week the world number two called it a “game-time decision” whether he would be able to play or not as he took it hour by hour. However, by the time he got to the course yesterday, he said he was good to go.
“Honestly, overall it was fine,” said McIlroy who felt his game wasn’t as sharp as it needed to be. “Got a little bit tired at the end of the day, but yeah, it was actually all pretty good.”
“It's weird, I obviously played on Friday; it's not as if I've taken a ton of time off,” McIlroy added. “But just felt like unbelievably rusty out there.”
Due to the injury and taking precaution, he had only hit a number of balls on Wednesday before doing some chipping and putting. The poor weather conditions didn’t help matters during yesterday’s first round as a storm caused a delay and play was ultimately suspended for the day.
"I'm glad I got through the round," added McIlroy, who is seven shots back of the overnight leaders, Sepp Straka, Maverick McNealy, Lee Hodges, Sahith Theegala and Austin Smotherman, who is playing his final hole.
"Hopefully tonight goes well and I'll get out there tomorrow, and I was trying to just get back to even par for the day on that back nine. Couldn't quite get there. ... But starting with a couple of sort of birdie chances tomorrow on the back, so as I said, try to get it back to even par, and honestly, I don't feel like I'm that far away.”
McIlroy dropped shots at four, five and 11 and picked up a birdie at six.
Seamus Power opened with a two-over 74.
Shane Lowry struggled to a four-over 76 despite getting to two under through 11 holes. Another poor finish saw the Offaly man bogey 14, double 15 before picking up a birdie at the famous par three 17th. However, his day ended dramatically after running up a quadruple bogey eight on the 18th.