Perhaps we should be excited about Rory McIlroy’s 66 on Thursday at Bay Hill — a round that started out so very slow yet turned into the first round co-lead at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
Of maybe we should simply say: Not so fast my friends.
We saw Rory do this last year — dazzle everyone with a day one 66 that was followed by rounds of 73-73-76 for one giant Ahhh-Blaaaah final 54 holes for the young Ulsterman.
Rory started on the back nine and not much was happening for him. No birdie at the par five 12th, a disappointment but a bonus birdie at 14 when he rolled in a 13-footer to get into red numbers. Another disappointment at the short par five 16th, where Rory can hit as little as a seven or eight-iron into that hole contingent on a drive in the fairway. But a big block right and a second that sailed long left him with a second head-scratching par on a par five. A sweet tee shot into the tough 17th and a 13-footer got him to two-under but in Rory-like fashion, he made bogey at the 18th from the middle of the fairway with pitching wedge in his hand. Sigh……..
After a par at the first, he found himself 56 feet from the hole at the difficult par three second. Then something special — he holed the bomb! At the par four third he hit another Rory-esque short wedge from 92 yards, leaving himself outside 22 feet — not good. But something special happened again — he holed the putt! He then took care of business with a two-putt birdie at the par five fourth then stuck his approach from 170 to four feet at the fifth for a fourth straight birdie. At the cape-hole sixth, the par five around the huge lake, a 327-yard drive then a second to 26-feet made for a fifth straight, easy two-putt birdie. Five birdies in a row — seriously?
Three pars to finish and Rory was in the house as the early leader from the morning wave.
“I saw a lot of really positive signs out there today,” said McIlroy, who is no stranger to low first rounds. You may or may not recall he opened 2021 with a 64 in Abu Dhabi but has only broken 70 a half-dozen times in 17 worldwide rounds.
He looked good at times last week at The Concession but those missed short putts drive his fans crazy, no to mention Rory his own self.
So here we go again with Rory, wondering if this is the week he breaks that two-year winless streak.
Rory’s taken a page from Tiger’s Book Of Bay Hill.
“I feel like you don’t have to do anything special to shoot a good score here,” McIlroy said. “I’ve watched Tiger enough here over the years, and the way he played this course was he played it very conservatively, he took care of the par-fives, and that was usually good enough to get the job done. So sort of take a little bit of a leaf out of his book.”
Notice Rory mentioned Tiger feasting on the par fives.
On Thursday, he was just two-for-four, which isn’t all that great in Tiger’s Book Of Bay Hill.
Rory needs to go back and read that book again and get with the program.
Arnold Palmer Invitational Scoreboard:
2 Comments
baxter cepeda
My pick is leading a quarter of the way in.
Toms descriptions tell the predicted story: that the putter is back for Rors (relatively speaking) but the wedges are still his cryptonite; but it’s all good at Bay Hill.
Tiger has had issues with distance control with wedges at times; but that never seemed to stop him at Arnie’s place.
Bottom line; it doesn’t set up better for Rory. He would have definitely been my pick for that one and done (if I was doing that).
Last year got crazy tough for everyone. Rory’s scores were relatively decent.
Rory’s always a good pick at Arnie’s.
Tom Edrington
Bad weather coming into Florida Saturday and will affect round three…..keep an eye on Viktor Hovland, who will be a star at the Ryder Cup in September for the European squad.