Putting trips
Rory shoots 4-over after early misses
Two holes, two missed birdie putts, and one huge negative vibe set for Rory McIlroy at the PGA Championship.
McIlroy started by missing a 10-foot birdie putt on No. 10, his opening hole of the tournament at Baltusrol Thursday. Then, after a solid approach, came yet another missed putt. The 27-year-old’s head dropped, his shoulders slumped, and he stared at the hole as if trying to deduce what had gone wrong.
It just got worse. His shaky putting left him nine shots off the lead after finishing the first day 4-over 74. It was better than only seven players in the morning wave, and marked the first time he’d ever failed to break par in the opening round of the PGA Championship.
“Just not a lot of momentum out there,’’ McIlroy said. “I’m happy with my game from tee-to-green, driving the ball as well as I have ever, iron play feels good. Just when I get on the greens, it’s just a different story. I’ll need to try and figure it out for [Friday], try to shoot something in the mid-60s and get myself back into it.”
McIlroy had three bogeys in his first seven holes to quickly find himself threeover. He finished with four bogeys and 14 pars, without a single birdie in the round. And it’s his putting — for which he surprisingly doesn’t have a coach — that was the main culprit, the first two blown putts setting the tone.
“Look, you give yourself chances the first couple of holes, you don’t convert it. You want to get off to a good start. I feel like if I’d held one of those first two, it might’ve been a different story of the day,’’ said McIlroy, who admitted he had a hard time adjusting to the poa annua greens. “Yeah, I’m struggling with the pace. There was a couple of putts from quite a short distance that I left short.
“They look much quicker than they putt, so there was at least two or three times when I had putts within 12 feet, thinking they’re downhill and going to be pretty quick, and I left them short.”
McIlroy tossed his putter after missing a 5-foot par putt at the second hole — his 11th hole of the day. He missed from 6 feet for his first bogey on the 13th, then hit into the bunkers on both the 14th and 16th holes, dropping shots on each.
Most elite golfers have a putting coach, but McIlroy has chosen not to.
“I’m sort of doing it on my own,’’ he said. “I have got a few drills that I do and work on the mirror a little bit. That’s really it. I try to create my own feelings. It’s good on the putting green; it’s just a matter of getting it from the putting green to the course.”