Rory McIlroy Shares Hero Lead Despite Double At Ninth

Rory McIlroy’s game is still trending in the right direction and he didn’t let a poor finish at the DP World Tour Championship affect his start at the Hero World Challenge on Thursday.

McIlroy shot a six-under par 66 and felt he left a lot of shots out on the course at Albany on a warm and windy opening day.

“Today’s play, I didn’t feel like I played all that well today.  I felt I left a lot out there.  I played the par fives in even par — that’s not good enough.  Apart from that, I played well.”

McIlroy hurt himself on the ninth, a par five.  He made double-bogey but he got his round back on track on the short par four 14th (290 yards) when he drove it pin-high then chipped in for an eagle.  He added his sixth birdie of the day at the 15th and finished tied at the top with Daniel Berger and Abraham Ancer.

Berger was seven-under and leading the tournament coming to the 18th.  After a good drive in the fairway, he left his approach right of the green.  He chunked his chip shot, leaving it short of the green.  From there he got up-and-down for bogey.  This is Berger’s first appearance since the Ryder Cup.  “It’s a great field — a little rusty but I got off to a great start and kinda hung in there.”  The great start Berger referred to was four straight birdies to get his round going.

Abraham Ancer nearly had a clean scorecard.  He had seven birdies and a single bogey at the par five ninth.  Ancer made it three at the top.  Afterward he stated a simple goal for 2022 — “Keep improving, win some more tournaments.”

Justin Thomas came into Albany two weeks after lasik surgery on his eyes.  “You see me wearing sunglasses,” he pointed out.  J.T. found himself seven under with just the 18th to play but he lost his drive way right on the final hole and it found a huge palmetto bush.  After taking an unplayable, he left his third well short of the green.  He got his fourth to seven feet but missed the putt, made double-bogey and signed for a five-under par round of 67.

“Obviously a poor finish,” Thomas said of his day’s work.  “But I played well.  Could have been a really low round.  He was tied at 67 with Brooks Koepka and Webb Simpson.

Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau are both in the field and Brooks once again got the best of Bryson.  DeChambeau was five-under coming to the 18th but pulled his second shot into the water guarding the left side of the green and finished with a double-bogey that dropped him back to three-under par, 69.

Collin Morikawa had a chance to be in that group at five-under par but he pulled his approach into the rocks short of the water and had to take an unplayable and he’d finish with bogey to join a group of four players at 68 including Tony Finau, Viktor Hovland and Patrick Reed.

Finau’s regular caddie, Mark Urbaek, is back home for the birth of his first child and billionaire Ryan Smith, the new owner of the NBA Utah Jazz and a good friend of Finau’s, is on Tony’s bag this week.

Despite the windy day, 18 of the 20 players shot under par.  Defending champion Henrik Stenson was the only player at even par 72 and only Harris English (75) was over par.

Hero World Challenge Scoreboard:

Collin Morikawa Gets Engaged:

There was a marriage proposal earlier this week at the Hero World Challenge.

Collin Morikawa took advantage of the beautiful resort setting in the Bahamas to pop the question to girlfriend Katherine (Kat) Zhu Tuesday evening.

Of course she said yes and sometime in 2022 they will become the Morikawas.