McIlroy muscles his way to top in Riviera
ANYBODY who t hinks Rory McIlroy is spending too long in the gym must have had a weight lifted off their mind yesterday as the Northern Irishman marked his debut in the Northern Trust Open with an excellent opening round of 67.
The 26-year- old, playing in his first PGA Tour event of the season, muscled his way on to the early leaderboard with a fine display at Riviera, and was joined there by Englishman Justin Rose, who shot a two-under-par 69.
McIlroy had spent much of the build-up patiently explaining why American television analyst Brandel Chamblee was wrong to question his gym routine, detailing how it had eliminated the back problems that plagued him early in his career.
Out at 7.33am, he quickly swatted away any fear that all the conjecture would prove an unwelcome distraction. McIlroy began at the 10th, a lovely short par-four that offers a birdie opportunity to those who skilfully negotiate its 315 yards but can trap the unwary.
The world No 3 played it perfectly, holing from six feet for his birdie, and thenhen knocking two mighty blows on to the green at the 583-yard 11th before two- putting f or another gain.
What a start this was to his first competitive experience at one of America’s most storied courses, situated just off Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, Los Angeles.
Riviera showed its teeth at the 15th, however, as McIlroy picked up his first bogey but he made mincemeat of the course’s other two par-fives, the 17th and the 1st, to move nicely into red numbers, and then birdied the seventh from three feet. This is the third event Rose is playing in the four-tournament West Coast swing and the 35yyear- ol d s howed ssome form at Pebble Beach last week with a nice top- six finish. Like McIlroy, he was playing the course the wrong way round and, again like Rory, picked up shots at the 10th, 17th, and 1st holes.
Rose had a golden opportunity to pick up a further stroke at the celebrated par-three sixth — it might be the only hole in golf with a bunker in the middle of the green — but missed a birdie putt of less than five feet. He then bogeyed the eighth.
This was, nevertheless, a decent start, albeit one that left him trailing his playing partner Bubba Watson, who set the early pace with a 66. Watson is a former winner of this event as well, of course, as being t wice a Masters champion.
Watson charged into an early share of the lead at one of his favourite venues.
The American triumphed here in 2014, and admitted that he relished the softer conditions on an iconic layout which he has long revered.
‘Today, obviously with the rain, it was easier,’ the twice Masters champion told reporters after a round highlighted by seven birdies. ‘The golf course is accepting shots. It’s totally different than yesterday.
‘I love it here because of the his- tory. It’s one of those golf courses where it can bite you at any minute but, at the same time, you can score and you can imagine a bunch of shots around the trees and around the greens.’
McIlroy, like Watson a player who loves to picture shots in his mind before shaping them, was also delighted to play well in his first PGA outing of the year.
‘I put myself out of position a couple of times but the way the conditions of the golf course were, it didn’t punish you as bad as if it would have been as firm as it was the last couple of days,’ said the world number three, a four-times major champion.
‘I felt like my pace on the greens was good ... and I lag-putted well. All of the things that you need to do around this golf course, I did pretty well today.’
Another early starter was Pádraig Harrington, who signed for a level-par 71 which included a birdie and a bogey on each nine.