Rory McIlroy flushed a drive off the sixth tee, his 15th hole of the opening round, and bent to pick up his tee. “I love you Rory,” came the shout of a young girl in the gallery, to good-natured laughter from those around her who shared the love. The player smiled, briefly, before refocusing on the final stretch of a round in the 106th US PGA Championship that had him signing for a five-under-par 66, four shots behind leader Xander Schauffele, right in the mix.
For McIlroy, the ability to keep his mind on the task at hand was foremost. For the first time in seven years there was no wedding band on the fourth finger of his left hand, yet the world number two’s ability to compartmentalise, as he had put it himself in the run-up to the championship, so that no outside distractions or personal issues would impact was borne out.
Returning to the scene of his 2014 US PGA success, the fourth of four career Majors so far on his CV, McIlroy was relaxed. On the way to the 10th tee, his starting point, there was time to shake hands with volunteer marshals as he walked up the mulched pathway to the teeing area where the large Rolex clock ticked down to the start time.
Once he was called on, the first of a group also containing Dustin Johnson and Justin Rose, it was time for the clubs to do the talking.
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McIlroy, with the momentum of back-to-back wins on tour, in the Zurich Classic (in tandem with Shane Lowry) and last week in Wells Fargo at Quail Hollow, where he caught and then ran away from Schauffele, maintained that form and hit the ground running with an opening birdie from eight feet on the par 5 10th hole. Up and running. And followed by another birdie on the 13th.
For the front nine, his driver, however, was slightly off-key and it threatened to derail his efforts. The bogey on the 17th provided a scare. Another wayward drive on the 18th, into the water hazard, focused his mind and he was able to salvage par.
“I was pretty sure it was in the water off the tee, and then when I got up there, I guess the two ball-spotters or marshals said they didn’t really see it or couldn’t really hear it. I went over to the other side just to check, but was pretty sure it was in the water.
“I took my medicine, made a great up-and-down from about 120 yards to make par, which was important after making bogey on 17. That kept any momentum that I had going into the next nine,” he said, turning in 35, before a homeward run that yielded four birdies – on the first, fifth, sixth and eighth – with no further dropped shots saw him move into contention.
The best of those birdies? Probably the first hole. There, his drive ploughed into the thick bluegrass rough but McIlroy’s 8-iron approach from 166 yards hit the flagstick and came to rest six feet away. He sank the putt.
“It was huge,” he said of that birdie. “I could have easily bogeyed 18 and been back to even par, and then again, that ball on one could have hit the flagstick and went anywhere. I could have made bogey from that. Potentially being one-over par through 10, I’m two-under. So it’s a three-shot difference. It’s a big swing.”
McIlroy’s hat-trick of birdies coming home was kick-started with a brilliant chip-in from off the green on the sixth. His approach hung left and looked like it was destined to find sand.
“Is it in the bunker?” he wondered aloud. “I think so,” replied caddie Harry Diamond.
But, it was not. And he made the most of his good fortune by chipping in, followed by birdies on the seventh and eighth.
“I thought I got a lot out of my game today. Some good up-and-downs, the chip-in on six ... I had a little bit of a scrappy part around the turn there but overall really happy, not really happy with how I played but at least happy with the score,” said McIlroy.
Of coming in on the back of the win in Quail Hollow, McIlroy described the more receptive greens at Valhalla as a factor in the low scoring: “The greens are really soft, especially for the guys that played last week at Quail Hollow where the greens were particularly firm. You come to greens like this, second shots are easier. Chip shots are easier if you do miss the greens.
“I think just the difference between last week in Charlotte and this week, it’s a big difference, and I think for the guys that played last week. It’s just a little less challenging at the minute around the greens.”
He was one of those to make the most of it. Right in the thick of it.
