It was all going well until it wasn’t. In typical Rory McIlroy fashion, his hopes of completing the career grand slam are hanging by a thread after not doing enough to get into the mix but doing enough not to be completely out of contention after round one of the Masters.
While he exhaled after a scrappy 71, his playing partner and main obstacle standing in his way of a green jacket shrugged his shoulders after an effortless bogey-free 66.
Despite carding his lowest opening round and being under par for the first time since 2018, McIlroy is in a share of 17th place, six shots behind a rampant Bryson DeChambeau and five behind the ominously clinical world number one, Scottie Scheffler.
Over the last 10 years, McIlroy’s scoring average in the first and second rounds is 72.3 and although he beat that average by one there were issues. Level-par for the par fives and a pair of inexplicably pulled putts from close range.
McIlroy is under-par but it’s another slow start and only Tiger Woods (2005, 2019) has won the Masters having ranked outside the top-10 after round one.
“That’s sort of embarrassing if it is,” McIlroy said when told his 71 was his lowest opening effort since 2018. “But that’s a good thing. Yeah, I guess. I kept it together. I stuck to my game plan. Didn’t birdie two of the par-5s on the back, which was a little disappointing.
“But getting in in red numbers was decent.”
McIlroy overcame an iffy start to climb to two-under through 14 holes but even then there were issues that only he seems to find at Augusta National. Level-par for the par fives saw the Northern Irishman cough up shots to the field but a couple of pulls from short range on the greens turned a promising afternoon into an uphill battle.
“It was okay. I held it together well. It was a little scrappy,” said McIlroy. “The conditions are tricky. Hard to fully commit to shots out there at times just because the wind is — if it’s across, it feels down at one point and then into. It’s hard to commit to where the wind direction is at times.
“But yeah, I think after the slow start sort of making a few birdies around the turn was good. A little wasteful coming in. I had a good chance for birdie on 15 in the middle of the fairway and didn’t take that. Missed a shortish one on 16 and then the bogey on 17. Probably turned a 3-under into a 1-under there at the end.
“But overall still not a bad score, and obviously a lot of golf left to play.”
The four-time major winner let a good opportunity for an opening birdie go begging and compounded that with an inauspicious bogey on the par-5 2nd having found the right trees off the tee.
After a birdie, bogey run he soon settled with three successive pars before two-putting for birdie on the par-5 8th.
An excellent approach to the Golden Bell 12th set up a birdie but McIIroy failed to put himself in play on 13 and saw an 11-foot birdie effort slip by although he did roll in for birdie on 14 from 15-feet.
The 34-year-old was in the mayor’s office on the par-5 15th but a poor iron shot left him fortunate not to find the water at the front of the green and he had to settle for a disappointing par before a pulled putt from close range on 16 and a bogey on 17 sucked the wind from his sails and left him battling to keep pace with DeChambeau and Scheffler.
A classy up and down on 18 capped off a scrappy finish, Rory left at least two shots out there and once again he is on the periphery.
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