Rory McIlroy declared his opening round at the Arnold Palmer Invitational as his best round of the year so far after firing a six-under 66 to lead the early starters by one at Bay Hill.
t a course that has been more than kind to him in the past — he won in Orlando in 2018 and has finished in the top-six in each of the last four years — the World No.8 found his top form once again to edge big-hitting Bryson DeChambeau by one.
McIlroy rattled off seven birdies, including a string of five in a row on his back nine, and showed signs of his imperious self in his Thursday round of 66, including a fine display with the putting that has been missing on so many occasions.
The 31-year-old needed just 28 putts in his round — which included back-to-back putts over 20ft — and, although his approach play was still slightly lacking, his long-iron work was as good as it has ever been, as reflected in him playing the par-threes in three-under.
Although he was eight-under in his opening round at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship in January, McIlroy declared this to be the better of the two rounds given the improvement he saw in his game at Bay Hill.
“I opened up with 64 in Abu Dhabi, which was really good, but I just think with what I’ve been working on over the last few weeks it’s just started to feel a little more comfortable today, which was nice to see,†said the Holywood ace.
“The nice thing is (my game) is feeling better and better basically every time I go out there on the golf course.
“I felt pretty good about it, even in Abu Dhabi I felt pretty good about my game because I knew it maybe it wasn’t perfect but I knew that I had one miss. And I think that’s the last thing the last few weeks I’ve sort of had the two misses going on.
“But I saw a lot of golf shots going out of the window I was looking at today, so that gives me a lot of encouragement.â€
With the record McIlroy has at Bay Hill, his first round appears to be indicative of the kind of week he can gear himself up for, and the four-time Major champion revealed he took inspiration from Tiger Woods as to how to approach the course.
“I feel like you don’t have to do anything special to shoot a good score here. You can be really conservative off the tees if you want to be. There’s a bunch of irons that you can hit off tees,†explained McIlroy.
“Take care of the par-fives. I think the toughest thing about this course is the par-threes and I played them in three-under today. So that was a bonus.
“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.â€
Indeed, after a couple of early looks at the 11th and 13th – having started at the 10th – McIlroy only got under-par for the first time at the par-three 14th, holing a nice putt from 13ft for his opening birdie.
He needed a putt from a similar length at the 15th to rescue a par after finding the long grass off the tee and then hitting into the greenside bunker, but a fluffed chip from behind the green at the short par-five 16th cost him a good birdie chance.
But McIlroy bounced back superbly with another birdie at another par-three, holing out from 14ft at the 17th, but an over-hit chip – following a frustrating wait for some spectators to stop moving behind the green – saw him drop a shot on 18.
The four-time Major champion quickly put that behind him, however, and his remarkable run on the par-threes continued at the second when his pushed tee shot kicked off the bank and rolled back onto the green, and he then proceeded to bank the 55ft putt in off the flagstick for the birdie.
It wouldn’t have escaped McIlroy’s attention that, had that putt missed, it would have been 20ft by the other side, but he used that momentum to judge his birdie putt at the third to perfection, draining a big, breaking 22-footer to move three-under.
Those two long putts sparked that incredible run of five-in-a-row. The third came when he took advantage of the par-five fourth – hitting the green in two and two-putting from 40ft – and was followed by a beautiful approach at the fifth to four feet that yielded a simple tap-in birdie.
The par-five sixth was navigated superbly, McIlroy hitting the green in two again and two-putting for the fifth and final birdie of his run, which was then snapped when he two-putted for par at the par-three seventh, and he finished with two further pars.
That left him one ahead of DeChambeau, who signed for a five-under 67, with Jason Kokrak one shot further back at four-under-par having held a share of the lead at one point.
Big-hitting DeChambeau – who didn’t try to go for the par-five sixth off the tee as he suggested he might do – also had just one bogey on his round but had one fewer birdie than McIlroy to sit one back of the Northern Irishman.
France’s Victor Perez is three-under, Jordan Spieth continued his resurgence with a two-under 70, while McIlroy’s playing partners Tyrrell Hatton and Francesco Molinari finished at five- and six-over respectively.
Belfast Telegraph
