Mcilroy ruins useful start as reborn Garcia sets the pace

Rory Mcilroy’s mission to hit the jackpot in Sun City and so give himself a fighting chance of lifting a fourth Race to Dubai crown next week suffered a poor start as he fell eight shots behind runaway pacesetter Sergio Garcia.

The Irishman arrived at the £5.8 million Rolex Series event in South Africa declaring it was his goal to snatch the Harry Vardon Trophy from Italy’s Francesco Molinari.

He requires back-to-back triumphs to do so but that seems unlikely after a double bogey on his penultimate hole at the Gary Player Country Club ruined a promising round in the Nedbank Challenge.

Mcilroy was three under par after 13 but bogeyed the 14th, a par five he would have expected to birdie, and then came the ugly six as he crashed out of the top 20.

His mood was in direct contrast to that of Garcia, who has seemed a Masters champion reborn since receiving that supposedly controversial wild-card Ryder Cup pick from Europe captain Thomas Bjorn at the start of September.

Garcia proceeded to finish seventh in Portugal, before securing three points to displace Sir Nick Faldo as the Ryder Cup’s all-time leading points scorer. He then carried this form over to Valderrama, where he won the Andalucia Masters for the third time in succession.

His 64 – the lowest round at this famous tournament for 17 years – suggested he is not finished yet, as he created a four-shot cushion. Eight birdies earned daylight over a chasing pack comprising Charl Schwartzel, Mike Lorenzo-vera and Mikko Korhonen.

“It felt great,” Garcia said. “It was one of those rounds where things happened nicely to me.

“I think I played very smart. I probably wasn’t swinging unbelievably but I kept it under control and kept the ball in play all the time, which is difficult to do here.”