Rory McIlroy drummed up the ghosts of Masters previous when he turned a powerful begin into what turned out to be a bitterly disappointing opening 72 when he double bogeyed two of his final 4 holes at Augusta Nationwide.
4 underneath par for the day enjoying the fifteenth, tied for second with defending champion Scottie Scheffler and seemingly cruising to his finest opening spherical since 2011, he overshot the inexperienced and chipped again into the water en path to a gut-wrenching double bogey seven.
Paul McGinley steered on Sky Sports activities that McIlroy misplaced focus as enjoying associate Akshay Bhatia took an age to play his fourth from the drop zone after placing his second within the pond that guards the inexperienced.
However McIlroy was clearly crestfallen by the type of unforced error that prompted Jack Nicklaus to mood his pre-tournament prediction by saying that the Co Down man’s propensity to make “an 8 or a 7” was the one factor stopping him from successful the Masters.
The Holywood star didn’t decide to replay his chip however as a substitute headed to the dropping zone and took three to get down from 69 yards.
Shell-shocked, he parred the. sixteenth however fatally flew his 170-yard strategy over the seventeenth inexperienced and down a steep slope earlier than three-putting for an additional double bogey.
He parred the final however he was seven strokes behind England’s Justin Rose, who grabbed the first-round lead for the fifth time since 2004, carding a seven-under 65 with a lone bogey on the 18th to guide by two pictures from Scheffler, Canada’s Corey Conners and final 12 months’s runner-up Ludvig Aberg
Shane Lowry birdied the final to shoot 71 and share eleventh place, however McIlroy, who had damaged par on day one simply as soon as in his earlier six begins, was again in twenty seventh.
He seemed destined to place that slow-start narrative to mattress on a balmy April afternoon when he birdied the third by following a pitch to a couple ft after which saved an early disaster on the fourth, the place he knocked a 50-footer 12 ft previous the opening and made the return putt for par.
He needed to make a seven-footer for par on the fifth, however after safely negotiating the harmful sixth and seventh, he two-putted the eighth from 20 ft for birdie and birdied the ninth from 4 ft to show in 33 for his lowest opening 9 holes within the Masters since he shot 32 en path to a 65 in 2011.
After a fantastic sand save on the tenth, he parred the eleventh and twelfth earlier than decreasing the thirteenth to a drive, a seven iron and two putts from 20 ft to maneuver right into a tie for second alongside Scheffler and Conners.
He may need gone to 5 underneath after a superb strategy to round six ft on the 14th however he misinterpret the slick. left to proper breaking putt and missed on the low facet..
A birdie seemed on the playing cards on the fifteenth till that deadly error, and after compounding his mistake by making one other double bogey on the seventeenth, he must regroup mentally now to work his means again into competition.
As for Lowry, the Offaly man didn’t have his finest day from tee to inexperienced.
However he putted properly as he made up for 3 bogeys by making his fourth birdie of the day on the 18th.
The Clara man three-putted for bogey on the third however chipped in for birdie on the fourth and a fair higher par on the fifth, the place he hit a 152-yard third to 4 ft after being pressured to chip out from the bushes.
He usually lives and dies by his putter, nevertheless it was scorching on day one.
He needed to make a six-footer for an additional par on the sixth after airmailing the inexperienced, however like McIlroy, he birdied the eighth and ninth due to wedge pictures to 4 and eight ft, respectively.
He dropped his second shot of the day on the tenth, the place he drove left into the bushes and made an excellent 10-footer for par on the eleventh after lacking the inexperienced safely to the suitable.
Pars adopted on the subsequent 5 holes and whereas he missed the inexperienced on the seventeenth and made bogey, he made amends on the final with a superb strategy to 5 ft.
Lowry felt he may need gotten extra out of his spherical however he was happy to birdie the final.
“I felt on the entrance 9 I wasn’t enjoying nice after which I turned in 2-under and felt like I performed higher on the again 9 and did not actually get nothing out of it,” he mentioned.
“Then I used to be fuming strolling off 17 inexperienced to be trustworthy as a result of I had labored so exhausting to remain underneath par after which once I hit my drive off 17, I used to be like, proper the place that pin is on 17 and the place the pin is on 18 I knew there was going to be two probabilities on the best way in in case you might get your drive away.
“It was simply the sloppiest bogey of all time. However to birdie the final was good and to shoot underneath par was good.”
He wasn’t too involved concerning the chief and is aware of that the course is just going to get more durable from right here,
“I believe Justin Rose went a bit loopy as we speak, however this golf course shouldn’t be giving something,” he mentioned. “It is agency. I consider there is likely to be a little bit of rain in a single day, however in all probability will not be a lot.
“However yeah, this golf course goes to play robust over the subsequent few days.”
He made particular point out of the fifteenth inexperienced, the place McIlroy got here to grief.
“Actually, it is so agency and quick that fifteenth inexperienced,” Lowry mentioned. “By Sunday I do not know what we will do to attempt to cease the ball on the inexperienced. It is very, very agency.”
