Off-course Rory hits dad with golf ball
Ulsterman hits dad Gerry with wayward shot en route to an opening 76
RORY Mcilroy’s opening round at the Masters proved that his swing fixes will not be quick ones as he carded a four-over 76 at Augusta National.
The World No.12, who switched to renowned swing coach Pete Cowen recently, was repeatedly wayward from the tee, leaving him struggling to recover and leading to six bogeys on his scorecard.
One wayward shot at the seventh saw his ball strike dad Gerry, who was among spectators standing by the green.
“I think I will autograph a bag of frozen peas for him,” joked Rory afterwards.
Mcilroy did find two birdies to limit the damage slightly, but it leaves him needing a good round today to stick around for the weekend at the first men’s Major of the year.
RORY Mcilroy’s crisis of confidence and his Masters misery continued as he slithered painfully to a four-over 76 in the opening round at a punishing Augusta National.
With the course playing firm and fast, the Co Down man’s lack of self-belief was evident as he sprayed the ball all over the Cathedral of Pines, even hitting his father Gerry with a wayward approach as he found just 10 greens in regulation and mixed six bogeys with two birdies to trail the early leaders, left-hander Brian Harman and Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama, by seven strokes.
Mcilroy is now 32-over-par for the opening rounds of the 25 Majors he has played since he captured the most recent of his Grand Slam titles in 2014.
But this latest reverse was not due to the pressure of trying to become just the sixth man to complete the career Grand Slam by winning the Masters, but just another poor round by a player in the midst of a swing crisis.
Paul Mcginley said on Sky Sports: “He really thrives on being confident and he’s not confident at the moment, it’s quite clear.
“He’s just going through a coaching addition to his team in Pete Cowen and we’ve never seen that before from him, we’ve never seen him question his ability in his own mind before in terms of bringing in a second coach and a second set of eyes to look at what he’s doing.
“So he’s out of sorts, that’s the bottom line with him. Mentally, we’ve seen a lot of this from Mcilroy where he dips in and out of form.
“He’s volatile as a player and when he’s hot, he’s really hot, and when he’s cold, he can be really cold. I wouldn’t read too much into it. I certainly don’t believe this week is because of the weight of expectations of trying to win The Masters.
“I think he’s coming in on a very low level of confidence and obviously got a bit of confusion with his golf swing and he’s questioning himself and questioning his ability. But what we do know is that we’ve seen him in slumps before and he will come out of it.”
Dressed in beige slacks, a black polo and blue cap, Mcilroy got off to a solid start with a textbook par-four at the difficult first but was soon looking as bruised as his outfit as he struggled to trust his swing.
It was clear he was not firing on all cylinders when he wiped consecutive tee shots into the pines at the second and third and walked away from two birdie holes with hard-fought pars.
At the second, he escaped from the right trees but pitched seven feet above the hole and watched his slick birdie putt snap left at the cup. Then, at the third, he was again in trouble right and did well to keep his pitch on the green before two-putting for par from longrange.
He steadied the ship with a safe, two-putt par at the short fourth, but after coming up just short of the green at the fifth, he pitched 10ft above the hole and missed the slippery putt for par.
A bogey there was no disaster, but he quickly made it three dropped shots in a row with further mistakes at the sixth and seventh.
At the 180-yard sixth, he missed long left to a back left pin and, while he did well to give himself a 10-footer for par, he missed the putt on the low side before shedding another stroke at the tight, 450-yard seventh.
This time he was blocked out in the trees on the left and, after his attempted hook around a pine went right into the gallery, rebounding off his father Gerry, he took three more shots from there and pencilled in another bogey.
Tied for 54th at this stage, he rebounded at the eighth by pounding a 340-yard tee shot down the middle before ripping a long iron 239 yards to 13ft to set up an eagle chance.
He missed the right to left effort on the high side, however, and, after tapping in for birdie to get back to two-over, he three-putted the ninth from 17ft to turn in 39.
He burned the edge with a birdie effort at the 10th but carved his tee shot right onto the spectator path in the trees at the 11th and pulled his second into the lake.
He did well to drop just one stroke by holing a slick 25-footer from the fringe for bogey to go to four-over.
But after getting up and down for par at the 12th, where he flew the green, his plight was summed up by his bogey at the 13th where the ball was above his feet for his approach but, fearing another miss to the left, he pushed his 215-yard second into Rae’s Creek and walked off with a bogey six.
Even when he left himself a seven-footer at the 14th, it was from above the hole and he lipped out for his birdie.
Two good shots set up a twoputt birdie at the par-five 15th but he could not find a birdie coming home and ended up tied with 63-year-old Ian Woosnam, who was playing with a strained groin, and two shots behind 63-year-old Bernhard Langer (74).
As Henrik Stenson explained after getting up and down 11 times to turn a 77 into a 73, a firm and fast Augusta is no fun when you’re struggling for confidence.
“It’s a hard golf course when you’re playing well, but it’s even harder when you’re not playing well,” the Swede said.
Defending champion Dustin Johnson suffered a poor finish with a bogey on the 16th followed by a double bogey on the last, the World No.1 signing for a two-over-par 74.
And Lee Westwood fared even worse with a disappointing 78.
Former champion Patrick Reed moved into a share of the lead with a birdie on the 17th, only to bogey the last and have to settle for an opening 70.