The Champion Course at PGA National is usually one of the hardest tests on the regular PGA Tour schedule, but a rain-softened course combined with dead-calm conditions meant the early starters found the going about as easy as could be on day one of the Cognizant Classic.
Starting out in back-to-back groups, Shane Lowry and Rory McIlroy both have fond memories of the place, with the former finishing fifth and second here in 2023 and 2022 respectively, while the latter won here in 2012, taking the world number-one ranking in the process, and though they’ve both started out with four-under 67s – ordinarily an excellent score at the Jack Nicklaus designed course – both will feel that they could so easily have been at least one or two better.
McIlroy was back to his imperious best off the tee and currently ranks first in Strokes-Gained, but his approach play was a little off, having to scramble for birdie on each of the three par-5s after having iron-in-hand for his second shots, and poured in a 24-footer for birdie on the par-3 17th – his eighth. The sixth hole was the only one where he knocked it particularly close on approach, hitting a 173-yard 8-iron to three feet and rolling in the putt to take him to five-under for the day.
He missed good opportunities at the 13th and ninth holes after pounding the ball off the tee to flip-wedge distance but came up shy on approach on both occasions, the final hole seeing him forced to lag putt from outside 30 feet having had just 120 to the flag.
“Pretty solid,” was how he assessed his performance after the round. “Some good, some not so good. Really good off the tee. That’s been a really good thing. I led strokes gained off the tee at Riviera a couple weeks ago, drove it really well again today.
“But a little loose with the irons. Didn’t really hole much going out, but I holed a couple on the back nine.
“Overall, it’s a solid start. 67 around here is always a decent score. It was so benign today. You’re not going to get this course much easier. Probably could have been a couple of shots better, but overall still a decent start.”
“It’s something that I’ve been struggling with for the last few weeks,” he said of his iron-play, “and it’s hard. It’s hard to replicate on the range the visuals that you’re getting on the course, and it’s more a visual thing. When I see a pin on the left side of the green, I’m just a bit more uneasy of what shot to play and how I’m trying to swing it and whatever.
“I’ll try to find a place on the range today where I can sort of imagine that I’m hitting to left pins and just trying to hit the shots that I want to hit. Repetition is basically all I need to do.”
Lowry, who also started on the 10th, began his day with six successive pars before opening his birdie account with a holed 22-footer on the seventh and then two-putted for birdie on the par-5 18th.
He gave a shot back on the first, but business picked up on the par-5 third where he stuffed a 217-yard approach to inside three feet and cleaned up for eagle to get to -3 on the day. That quickly became -4 when he birdied the par-4 next. A wayward tee shot on the eighth forced him to chop out sideways and he ended up making his second bogey of the day, but shaped a beautiful wedge into the last and rolled home from 14 feet to get back to -4 and back within three of the early pace-setter.
It’s all America at the top of the leaderboard mid-way through day one, with Chad Ramey’s seven-under leading from the quintet of Cameron Young, Austin Eckroat, Andrew Novak, Ryan Moore and Chesson Hadley.
McIlroy and Lowry currently lie tied for 12th, while Padraig Harrington is out in the afternoon wave and is off to a fast start after birdieing the second hole.
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