McILROY’S IN TROUBLE IN DROP ZONE
Rory: My conscience is clear over penalty
RORY McILROY has insisted his conscience is clear after shrugging off a lengthy debate over a penalty drop to claim a share of the clubhouse lead on day one of the Players Championship.
Having started from the 10th at TPC Sawgrass, the Northern Irishman looked set to lead outright when he covered his first 15 holes in eight under, only to pull his tee shot on the seventh into the water.
It wasn’t clear where the ball had bounced before entering the hazard and that led to a near 10-minute discussion with playing partners Viktor Hovland and Jordan Spieth, who appeared to question the location of McIlroy’s drop.
McIlroy eventually hit his third shot short of the green and ran up a damaging double-bogey six.
But he made his 10th birdie of the day on the par-five ninth to match the 65 of Xander Schauffele.
McIlroy said: “I think Jordan was just trying to make sure that I was doing the right thing and I was pretty sure that my ball had crossed where I was dropping.
“It’s so hard, right, because there was no TV evidence but if anything I was being conservative with it.
“At the end of the day, we’re all trying to protect ourselves and the field. I was adamant, but I guess I started to doubt myself a little bit. I was like, ‘OK, did I actually see what I thought I saw?’.
“It is a bit of a TV blind spot. The best view was from the tee, which was the view that we had.”
Hovland and Spieth chose not to speak to the media after posting rounds of 73 and 74 respectively.
But McIlroy – who faced a similar drop situation on the 18th hole – was asked if everyone in the group was comfortable with the outcome.
He added: “I think so. I’m comfortable and that’s the most important thing.
“I’m one of the most conscientious golfers out here. If I feel I have done something wrong it will play on my conscience for the rest of the tournament.
“I’m a big believer in karma. If you do something wrong, it’s going to come around and bite you at some point.”
New Zealand’s Ryan Fox had earlier made history as the first man to follow an eagle on the 16th with a hole-in-one on the 17th.
Fox holed a close putt on the 16th and saw his tee shot on the next pitch around 10 feet beyond the pin and spin in.