NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. — Sometimes one word is all you need. Asked to describe his 4-over opening round at the PGA Championship, Rory McIlroy was succinct:
“S—t.”
Rhymes with hit, one letter off from spit. McIlroy could have left his press conference after that one word, but he stuck around for a few more questions and elaborated on his woeful round. None of his later answers, though, were as on-point as his first.
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McIlroy rolled into this tournament as one of the two favorites, along with Scottie Scheffler. He spoke before the tournament began about how confident he was in this course, how he considered it basically a bomber’s paradise … and, as if determined to make him pay, Aronimink bit back hard.
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McIlroy bogeyed his first hole of the day, the 10th, but seemed to reclaim his footing with a birdie on the treacherous 11th. But he spent the rest of the day chasing, and by the final holes, the wheels came off. He carded five bogeys in his final six holes to limp into the clubhouse seven strokes off the clubhouse lead.
“I’m just not driving the ball well enough. It’s been a problem all year for the most part,” McIlroy added after the round. “I miss it right, and then I want to try to correct it. And then I’ll overdo it, and I’ll miss it left. It’s a little bit of back and forth that way. So that’s pretty frustrating, especially when I pride myself on driving the ball well.”
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McIlroy noted that the pin locations, combined with the wind, forced some strategic thinking, and the rough challenged his escape ability.
“Certainly is a penalty for missing the fairway,” he said. “Probably more than what I anticipated after being here, whatever it is, two Fridays ago.”
It’s not really a concern now, but McIlroy is the only player in the field who could win the grand slam — all four majors in a year — but that seems out of reach now. He’ll need to focus on making the cut before he can think about winning.
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