Finally, Rory got it going.
Rory McIlroy hasn’t been very good lately.
His last six rounds on the PGA Tour have been over par. He missed the cut last week at The Valspar, didn’t even come close.
McIlroy has fallen from the world’s top 10, landing this week at unlucky No. 13. He’s in dire need of a bounce-back and it look like Thursday would be his day at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
McIlroy, playing with tournament host Rickie Fowler, piled up four front nine birdies then added another after the turn at the 10th.
He stayed five-under, missing a golden opportunity at the inviting 16th but he still made it to the 18th tee, five-under.
Then disaster struck.
He yanked his three-wood far enough left that it went out-of-bounds — not even close.
He re-loaded and found the fairway — his fourth from 145 came up short and he’d close with double-bogey six.
It was the round that could-have-been. He turned 67 into 69.
“Yeah, one bad swing at the end,” McIlroy lamented. “My second tee shot did exactly what I wanted to do with the first one. I was trying to hit it up the left side and bring it back and I double-crossed it.”
Fowler didn’t have to think that way. Rickie started his week with a perfect bogey-free round — 67 — five-under and squarely in the hunt after the first 18.
“Nice day,” Fowler said after his round was finished. “I’ve been putting some work in on the swing the past couple of weeks where it’s been off the start of the year, not where we would have like it.”
Fowler called his 67 “stress-free.”
“I had a couple of tap-in birdies after some close wedge shots, a couple of longer putts but other than that, it wasn’t anything too special.”
