GOLF:RORY McILROY might have painful memories of the windblown 80 that wrecked his chances of winning the British Open at St Andrews last July. But the 21-year-old Ulsterman proved yesterday he learned a valuable lesson that fateful day.

Buffeted by northeast winds gusting well over 30mph, the Holywood golfer battened down the hatches to chisel out a three-over-par 73 in the opening round of the Honda Classic at the PGA National Champion Course in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.

His round was made to look quite ordinary in comparison with the three-under-par 67 carded by clubhouse leader Spencer Levin or the level-par 70 posted by world number two Lee Westwood.

Yet while McIlroy managed just one birdie against four bogeys, he knows that he took another important step along the road in what is a fledgling career.

“I learnt a lot from that,” McIlroy said when reminded of his forgettable Friday at St Andrews, where he crashed back to earth following his opening 63.

“I always think about that day when I play in conditions like this and you have to realise that 74 or 75 is not a bad score.

“You have to hang in there, make pars, don’t try and chase pins and hit it in the middle of the green and two-putt.

“With that day, even though it was a bad day in my very short career, it did me the world of good for days like today and showed me that I have to just hang in there and grind it out.”

It looked like it might be a great day for McIlroy when he bombed a 324-yard drive down the 10th and converted a 15-footer for birdie to go into the red straight away.

But when he missed an eight-footer for par at the 12th after bunkering his tee-shot it was apparent that it was going to be a case of survival of the fittest.

He didn’t get frustrated, however, and played the three-hole stretch known as The Bear Trap in one over par, sandwiching a couple of excellent par threes between a solitary bogey at the 16th, where his pitch from short of the green ran eight feet past and he narrowly missed the putt.

“Putting was the toughest part of it,” McIlroy said after a round in which he missed 10 greens and used the blade 29 times. “You are hitting a putt that would be right edge with no wind, but with the wind really blowing you had to hit that putt outside the left. It was just trusting that and being decisive.”

Even the downwind holes were no pushover and McIlroy bogeyed the first when he missed the green and was almost blown over as he stood over an eight-footer for his par. Another shot went at the sixth, where he missed from around six feet after bunkering his 184-yard approach.

“When we were playing downwind I felt I could make up a few shots but even the downwind holes were tricky because you didn’t know how far it was going to release,” added McIlroy, who lipped out from 50 feet at the eighth before holing an eight-footer for par at his closing hole.

Levin’s 67 gave him an early one-stroke clubhouse lead over Australia’s Stuart Appleby, South Africa’s Charl Schwartzel and 2007 Walker Cup player Kyle Stanley.

Playing alongside McIlroy, Luke Donald shot a 73 while defending champion Camilo Villegas was humbled with a 79.

* GRAEME MCDOWELLis thinking of putting two drivers in his bag for next month's US Masters at Augusta National – his regular Callaway club and a hand-built Cleveland model that will allow him to hit a raking draw off the tee.

Phil Mickelson opted for two drivers in 2006 – one for fades and another for draws – and went on to win his second green jacket that year.

Now McDowell is thinking of taking the same route on a course that requires players to move the ball right to left on up to six tee-shots.