When Rory McIlroy gets it going, he’s the Ultimate Driving Machine. Ditto for world’s No. 1 Jon Rahm.
The two cornerstones of the European Ryder Cup team put on a show Thursday on day one of the BMW Championship, the second stop for the FedEx Cup playoffs.
Rahm, who was beaten by Tony Finau last week at the Northern Trust, looked absolutely undaunted at birdie-friendly Caves Valley and showed it by opening with an eight-under par 64 that Rahm made look fairly routine.
The world’s No. 1 had a clean, bogey-free round. “It was really good golf,” began Rahm, who suffered two costly bogeys on the final nine last week that cost him a shot at victory. “I played solid. It helped that the rain (from last week) came here too. The playing conditions were pretty similar to last week,” said Rahm, who took advantage of the “lift-clean-and-place” rules that were in effect.
“It’s a big boy golf course,” Rahm said of the first-time playoff venue outside Baltimore. “You see what’s in front of you.”
Another big boy with the driver, McIlroy, followed Rahm’s display with his best opening round since the Arnold Palmer Invitational last spring. McIlroy hit two perfect, impressive shots into the par five 16th and stared at an 11-foot eagle putt to join Rahm at eight-under. Rory dropped it, finished par-par and joined the fun with his own 64.
McIlroy didn’t see it coming. “I don’t know. Every day you go out and try your best and some days are better than others. At 16 the drive was great, the three-wood was as good as I could hit a three-wood. Probably the two best shots of the day,” said McIlroy, who tossed a three-wood during the final round of the Northern Trust towards the Jersey Turnpike. Reports are people still searching the woods for Rory’s discarded club.
As for the three-wood Rory is using this week, it’s a new “old” club. “New old 3-wood,” McIlroy said. “It’s actually a 3-wood I used last year — and it seemed to work out today.”
McIlroy said that when he flew home Monday night, he spent some time rummaging through some old clubs in his garage. He grabbed the fairway wood, tested out a few shafts on another driver head. He also decided to switch out putters, returning his TaylorMade Spider mallet to the bag before flying back up to Maryland.
“It’s funny, I thought about it, I said to Harry (caddie Harry Diamond) after the first round last week, ‘I’m thinking about going back to the Spider,’ and then I proceeded to gain four strokes on the greens over the next two days with the blade,” McIlroy said. “But I think the thing with the blade is the good days are really good, but the bad days are pretty bad, as well. There’s quite a lot of inconsistency in it for me. It’s almost like I need to practice with the blade at home because you have to get your stroke spot-on to hit good putts with that style of putter.”
The equipment changes worked well for McIlroy. “I just need to try and keep it going,” McIlroy said after he signed his scorecard.
Sam Burns finished ahead of both to make it a trio at the top. Burns picked up his first win this season and comes into this championship ranked 12th in FedEx points.
Sergio Garcia hit 16 of 18 greens and was a shot back with a seven-under par 65. Two back of the leaders were Tiger Woods-challenging Abraham Ancer and poke-face Pat Cantlay.
Tony Finau, who bagged the biggest win of his career last week in a playoff with Cameron Smith, kept his momentum as well. Finau opened with a five-under par 67 on the 7,500-yard-plus layout.
The weather was hot and humid with temperatures pushing well into the 90s and the “feels-like” temps even higher. “It’s hot, humid, stay hydrated,” Rahm advised.
Finau had some big-name company at five-under including world No. 2 Dustin Johnson, gold medalist Xander Schauffele along with Webb Simpson and Harold Varner III.
This week’s field of 70 is in a battle for 30 coveted spots at next week’s Tour Championship at East Lake in Atlanta. Bubble players on the right side of 30 include Sungjae Im (25), Patrick Reed (26), Billy Horschel (27), McIlroy (28), Charlie Hoffman (29) and Max Homa (30).
Players on the wrong side of the bubble who need a good four days include Kevin Kisner (31), Keegan Bradley (32), Si Woo Kim (33), Cameron Tringale (34), Marc Leishman (35) and Cameron Davis (36). Reed was hospitalized in Houston with double pneumonia and although he was released from the hospital this week and is back home, he most likely will not be able to compete at East Lake even if he were to finish in the top 30.
