PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Rory McIlroy drove the ball beautifully last month when he won at Pebble Beach, and again in his next tournament at Torrey Pines.
Then he put a different version of his TaylorMade driver in the bag—along with his entire set of fairway woods—before last week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational, only to switch back before the final round.
“Yeah, it was a really good idea to change,” McIlroy said in a laughing, self-deprecating way on Sunday.
And clearly, McIlroy has yet to adjust properly in the other direction.
After having led the field in strokes-gained off the tee in his Pebble Beach victory and again at the Genesis Invitational, McIlroy has struggled in that area for two consecutive weeks. He was 80th in the field of 144 on Thursday at TPC Sawgrass.
But despite a wayward day off the tee, McIlroy shot 5-under-par 67 with a crazy final-hole birdie to finish a shot behind leaders Lucas Glover, J.J. Spaun and Camilo Villegas in the Players Championship. Play was called for darkness with two groups still on the course.
Hitting just four fairways at TPC Sawgrass is typically a road to disaster but McIlroy managed to make seven birdies and only two bogeys to share fourth place with Min Woo Lee and Billy Horschel.
“I certainly didn’t drive it the way I wanted to,” said McIlroy, who won the 2019 Players. “Didn’t hit it in as many fairways as I would have liked. I think with the greens being so receptive, you can get away with it a little bit. I’m not going to be able to get away with it for the rest of the week. Sort of rode my luck out there a little bit.
“But I’m trying to hit this cut shot into play. Missing right off the tee here on any hole is way better than missing left. Just sort of hitting this cut sort of up into the wind, and obviously you don't need to hit it too far here, so yeah, just going to go hit some balls here and figure it out and try to hit a few more fairways tomorrow.”
One of those fortunate instances occurred on the par-4 18th, the treacherous finishing hole that is guarded by water down the left side. McIlroy had missed drives to the left at the 15th and 16th holes. He wasn’t going to do it there.
So his tee came to rest in the right trees amid pine straw, 165 yards away. Although the distance was more than manageable, the trees hanging over meant for a tricky shot to run up toward the green.
“You’re just hoping for a backswing and a gap,” McIlroy said. “I had both.”
McIlroy said he was trying to punch a 5-iron and run it up to the front of the green. It trickled on, leaving him with a 7-footer for birdie.
“It was a bonus to get it up on the green and hole the putt was a lovely way to finish,” he said.
McIlroy, ranked second in the Official World Golf Ranking, played with No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who shot 69, and No. 3 Xander Schauffele, who shot 72.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Despite Wild Day Off the Tee, Rory McIlroy Starts Well at Players Championship.
