Birdies prove a struggle for McIlroy on first start post-Masters win

Rory McIlroy raised his hands in mock celebration after a 15-foot birdie putt found the bottom the cup on the ninth hole – his 18th – at Quail Hollow on day one of the PGA Tour’s Truist Championship.

After 17 consecutive pars, his streak had finally come to an end, and the red circle on his scorecard made it 70 strokes and a one-under tally that leaves him tied for 30th and seven shots behind first-round leader Matt McCarty.

“I didn’t,” he laughed when asked if he’d been keen to avoid emulating Nick Faldo’s famous 18-par round on the final day to win the 1987 Open Championship. “Yeah, I was thinking more like I knew that I made so many pars, but I was thinking I can’t remember the last time I played a round of golf and didn’t have a birdie. I think I was like just try to make one. I knew, I felt like I didn’t make birdie at 7, didn’t make birdie at 8, so then I thought my chance had passed me by, but nice to see one putt go in there at the last.”

One of the happiest Thursday birdies you’ll see 😅

Rory adds a circle on his final hole of the day @TruistChamp!

📺 Golf Channel pic.twitter.com/yiMHLDnD1D

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) May 7, 2026

Heavy rains in the morning forced the opening round to be delayed, and the field shuffled into a two-tee start, but despite the golf course playing considerably different to what it had in practice, McIlroy refused to attribute any of the on-course frustrations to the delay.

“It was fine. It was okay,” he said. “Spent a little bit of extra time at the house. I try to get to the course pretty early anyway, so it was just more because of so much rainfall last night and this morning the golf course played a lot different than it’s played the last couple days. So just a little bit of an adjustment.”

He ranked seventh in Strokes Gained: Off The Tee and 18th in Strokes Gained: Approach, which typically translates to a round in the mid-to-low 60s for the world number two, but a mix of putts missing and short game shots not nestling close enough kept the birdies off his card until the final hole.

But he felt his misfortunes on the greens were a result of bad luck and misreads as opposed to any technical difficulites.

“I wasn’t frustrated,” he said. “I was hitting good putts. Some days they just don’t want to go in. No, I wasn’t, I was just trying to stay patient because felt like I was hitting good putts, I over read a couple on the front side. Then I under read a couple as a reaction to the over reads. I was just sort of trying to — it was more of a read thing than — I was starting the ball on my line and hitting good putts. I just needed to figure out the reads a little bit better. But sort of felt like I got into it by the end of the round.”

Despite the seven-stroke deficit and having 29 players ahead of him on the leaderboard, he feels that the softened conditions and the additional length it adds to what is already a long golf course should suit him and he remains upbeat at his prospects of following his Masters victory with a high finish in his first tournament start since.

“The golf course is playing very, very long,” he explained. “So which should play into my hands. I felt like I hit the ball well and hit enough good shots to be a little better than what I was, but I got three more days to try to catch up to everyone.”

While birdies were an issue for McIlroy, they were anything but for Matt McCarty who couldn’t stop making them.

The American followed up four straight top-25 finishes on Tour with nine birdies to shoot an 8-under 63 on Thursday for a one-shot lead over Sungjae Im before the round was called because of rain.

Im was on his final hole when the skies opened up. He, along with a handful of others, will complete the round on Friday.