An eventful round one at Caves Valley in Maryland sees both Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry post an even par 70 as play was suspended for two hours due to a weather delay at the second event of the FedEx Cup playoffs.
McIlroy, who is guaranteed a top 30 finish and a spot in next week’s Tour Championship pieced together a topsy-turvy round as the grand slam winner struggled off the tee box, trading birdies for bogeys on the front nine.
A drive into the fairway bunker on the first hole followed by another on the second was a less than ideal start for 36-year-old but McIlroy did well to limit the damages.
“I got off to a bad start. Sort of pieced it together a little bit in the middle of the round and clawed it back to even par. But drove the ball terribly,” said the world no.2.
“When I hit the fairways, I give myself chances. I need to hit more fairways the next three days,” added McIlroy.
McIlroy struggled to capitalise with the flat stick as the back nine saw the Nothern Irishman have more opportunities for birdies, but couldn’t cash them.
Speaking about the greens, McIlroy said, “They’re tricky. There’s a lot of slope to them. They’re quite fast, and when it’s like that, matching line and speed is pretty tricky.”
It was a tale of two nines for Offaly’s Shane Lowry as the 38-year-old got off to a hot start, birdieing the first three holes.
A three-putt bogey on the par-4 seventh seemed to null momentum for Lowry as he began to struggle on the back nine. Four bogeys followed on his remaining nine holes as he is bound to be disappointed with his work on the greens.
Lowry would need to have a disastrous week for him to drop out of the top 30, as the 2019 Open winner currently sits 23rd in the standings.
Viktor Hovland and Rickie Fowler led at the time of suspension on 3-under-par, but a softer Caves Valley saw Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre catapult up the leaderboard when play resumed, as the 29-year-old put on a putting exhibition.
MacIntyre leads by three strokes at eight-under-par as he closed out round one with six birdies in a row, showcasing his best putting performance on the PGA Tour.
“The last six holes is probably as good as I’ve ever putted in a stretch of holes… I’ve got back to doing what I’m used to doing. You don’t expect to hole the big long putts. I don’t even know how long that one was on the par-3, but it was a long way away. But I expect to roll in putts. I work hard at it. I do a lot on my reads. I do a lot on my touch,” said MacIntyre.
With a new coach and new putter, MacIntyre seemed unstoppable on the greens.
“When I went back out, I had a 7-footer for birdie which was going to set the tone for the rest of the afternoon, and I rolled that in nicely… I’d never been great on restarts after a rain delay… kept myself moving. I kept myself warm,” added the 2024 Scottish Open winner.
Looking to continue his form and finally win on the PGA is Tommy Fleetwood as a five-under-par round one sees him in solo second place, one ahead of world no.1 Scottie Scheffler.
“I did a lot of things well. I felt like when I came back out after the break, I actually drove it quite poor. Didn’t hit a lot of fairways. On 16 and 18 I went down to my mini-driver. I was just a bit more comfortable with it,” said Fleetwood.
Fleetwood was in a great position to win the first playoff event last week but could not get the job done in the closing stages, a feat which the 34-year-old is becoming too familiar with.
“I’ll keep learning, keep trying to put myself up there. That’s all I want to do, really. Today was a great start to that, but it’s only one round. A lot more golf to play around a tough golf course. But I just want to keep trying my hardest and playing good golf,” added Fleetwood.
Good rounds for Rickie Fowler, Michael Kim and Jason Day sees them jump into the projected FedEx Cup top 30.
Leaderboard
