McIlroy falls back to Earth with a 75
Rory has a round to forget in the desert
IN 28 previous rounds on the Earth course at the DP World Tour Championship Rory McIlroy had never shot worse than 72 and had mustered the otherworldly combined total of 108 under par.
So imagine the shock when all sorts of putts went awry and shots were spilled as he stumbled to an opening score of 75 yesterday to lie joint 55th in a 60-man field. It was fully seven shots worse than his previous average score at the venue.
McIlroy had taken 14 holes to register his first birdie of the day and, although he swiftly added another on the next, the four-time major winner double-bogeyed the 16th. He needed two attempts, the second minus his right shoe and sock, to play from the edge of the water hazard.
Just to complete his miserable afternoon, he was led away for a drugs test at the end of his round.
Did they think he had been poisoned?
This time last year McIlroy beat Andy Sullivan in a weekend epic to claim the title. This morning, the pair found themselves as the second group off at 8am, after Sullivan also laboured to a 76. There’s no game like golf for bringing its stars down to earth, is there?
Of the three leading contenders to win the season-long Race to Dubai following this final event, it was Masters champion Danny Willett who felt the most frustration.
The Englishman needs a top-four finish to stand a chance of catching Henrik Stenson at the top and certainly played well enough to get off to a flyer, before settling for a 71.
Willett missed from eight feet at the 16th, three feet at the 17th and failed to get the birdie on offer at the par-five 18th.
Those three shots proved the difference between bedding down in the top four after day one and settling instead for a tie for 24th alongside Alex Noren. Noren needs a top-two finish to have a shout of catching his compatriot Stenson.
‘It’s annoying because I hit the ball really well and rolled it good for the most part on the greens,’ said Willett. ‘Obviously everyone wants to get off to a quick start and it does leave a bit of a bad taste to finish like that. But if I keep nosing on and shooting better each day to move up the leaderboard, I’m not going to be too far off come Sunday.’
Willett outplayed Stenson but finished only one shot better than his playing partner. ‘I guess the good news for me after playing some very average golf is that no-one made a big move today,’ said The Open Champion from Sweden. ‘I’m hanging in there and trying my hardest.’
Lee Westwood played some of his best golf of the season, carding seven birdies and just one bogey to shoot 66 and set the pace.
Westwood is having to make do without regular caddie Billy Foster, who has injured his knee. ‘I’m having to think a bit more because Billy usually does all the thinking for me and maybe that has helped me concentrate,’ said the 43-year-old, who won this title and the Race to Dubai on this course in 2009.
‘Today was as good as I’ve played for quite some time. I’ve found a couple of keys in different parts of my game and I’ve been working on them hard and it all came together today.’
Westwood’s former Ryder Cup partner Nicolas Colsaerts and Frenchman Julien Quesne share second place after opening with 67s, with Sergio Garcia, Francesco Molinari and Joost Luiten a shot further back.
Colsaerts carded five birdies in a flawless round but he was disappointed not to go even lower.
‘When you play that well, you want to squeeze every shot that you can out of it,’ said the Belgian. ‘But I’m confident that I can keep rolling like this. This is probably the one course out of the three in the Final series that suits my game the best.
‘There are corners that I can take on. I can use my length as a big advantage to come in with shorter irons into greens, especially the way the greens are designed. This is the one that I had my eyes on, and I know that if I bring the game I’ve been displaying it should be a decent recipe.’