McIlroy opens title defence with 79 as Garcia sets hot pace

Rory McIlroy suffered a nightmare start to the defence of his Players Championship title as Sergio Garcia set the pace at TPC Sawgrass.

McIlroy’s miserable 79, which included a quadruple bogey on the 18th, equalled the worst opening round in the event by a defending champion, set by Scot Sandy Lyle in 1988.

And it was 14 shots worse than playing partner Garcia, who fired two eagles and four birdies in a seven-underpar 65 to enjoy a threeshot clubhouse lead over former Ryder Cup teammate Matt Fitzpatrick and Canada’s Corey Conners.

Garcia, who won the Players Championship in 2008 and lost a play-off in 2015, birdied the 15th and eagled the 16th to reach the turn in 33 and finished his round in style with birdies on the seventh and eighth and an eagle on the ninth.

In contrast, McIlroy hooked his drive on the 10th – his opening hole – into the undergrowth and had to take a penalty drop on his way to a double-bogey six.

McIlroy also threeputted the par-three 13th but worse was to come on the 18th, where he hit two balls into the water which runs the length of the hole and compounded the error with another three-putt to reach the turn in 43.

That matched the highest nine-hole score of his PGA Tour career – 2011 Masters, final round; 2014 Memorial, second round – and although birdies on the first and second repaired some of the damage, McIlroy promptly bogeyed the next two holes.

A birdie on the fifth was followed by three pars and another bogey on the par-five ninth, where McIlroy was unlucky to find a tricky lie in a greenside bunker but then three-putted from 25 feet.

Fitzpatrick threeputted both par-fives on the back nine for par and also three-putted the dangerous 17th on his way to an opening 68.

Compatriot Lee Westwood, who finished second in the Arnold Palmer Invitational on Sunday, was a shot further back.

Johnny Sexton believes Stuart Hogg’s calamitous fumble at the start of last year’s Guinness Six Nations will help fuel Scotland’s motivation to end their dismal run against Ireland.

Gregor Townsend’s men lost 19-12 in Dublin on the opening weekend of the 2020 tournament after a self-proclaimed “schoolboy error” from captain Hogg cost them a certain second-half try.

The Scots were also beaten 31-16 at the Aviva Stadium in the Autumn Nations Cup in December and have won just one of their last 10 meetings with the Irish, suffering five successive defeats.

Ireland skipper Sexton admits his side have benefited from good fortune in recent meetings and anticipates Scotland will be reviewing mistakes – including Hogg’s blunder – in a bid to snap their losing streak on Sunday.

He said: “They, I’m sure, will look back at those and say, ‘look at these opportunities that we had, we just need to be more clinical’.”

Rory McIlroy: Took 43 shots for his first nine holes.