Tiger finds his roar in opening round
Rory McIlroy hopes his BMW Championship duel with Tiger Woods continues through the weekend rounds after the superstar duo put on a clinic to share the lead after round one.
Woods fired an eight-under-par 62 at Philadelphia’s Aronimink Golf Club yesterday to equal the course record and earn his lowest opening round at a US PGA Tour event since 1999.
But moments later, McIlroy also posted a 62 which featured a stretch of six straight birdies to join Woods atop the leaderboard at the penultimate event of the US$67 million (NZ$102m) playoffs series.
Woods and McIlroy hold a oneshot lead over young American Xander Schauffele (63), while world No 3 Justin Thomas (64) is in a fourway tie for fourth at six-under.
Four-time major winner McIlroy says his inspiration to go deep in tomorrow’s second round is to make sure he is in the mix with a red-hot Woods.
‘‘Tiger is sort of being a regular fixture on the leaderboard this year; [the British Open] at Carnoustie was a lot of fun with him up there.
‘‘We all benefit from Tiger Woods playing well, so I’m happy he’s [contending] and it will be a great tournament if he stays up there.’’
The 14-time major winner Woods jumped out of the gates after teeing off the 10th hole, bagging three birdies in his first four holes before a stunning second shot from 242 yards into the par-five 16th hole.
He drained the five-foot eagle putt and then added birdies at the 18th (his ninth), first and seventh before his first mistake of the day led to a bogey at the eighth.
But 42-year-old Woods bounced back with a birdie at the par-five ninth and is confident of shooting more hot scores on day two, when tee times will be brought forward due to thunderstorms.
‘‘You definitely could do it . . . the fairways are wide and the greens are soft and it’s really not that long a golf course right now,’’ Woods said.
‘‘There are a lot of wedges [into greens] and you can give yourself at least 10, 12 looks [at birdie] and get on the hot run like I did.’’
Meanwhile, Kiwi No 1 Ryan Fox is tied for 10th after the opening round of the European Masters in Switzerland.
Fox carded a three-under-par 67, leaving him three shots off the pace behind German leader Maximilian Kieffer.