Home News McIlroy Regroups To Birdie Four Of His Closing Five Memphis Holes

McIlroy Regroups To Birdie Four Of His Closing Five Memphis Holes

6 years ago by Fatiha Betscher Comments Off

Rory McIlroy superbly regrouped in fighting back from struggling at three-over par through 12 holes to then birdie four of his closing five in a round of a one-under par 69 on the opening day of the inaugural WGC – FedEx St. Jude Invitational in Memphis.

McIlroy’s effort sees him trailing seven strokes behind powerhouse Spaniard Jon Rahm who snatched eight birdies in a very impressive eight-under par 62 on the TPC Southwind course.

Rahm capped his round with a hat-trick of birdies from his 15th to lead the elite 63-player field by three shots.

Five players – Double Masters winnnig Bubba Waston, Aussie Cameron Smith, American Patrick Cantlay and the Japanese duo of Hideki Matsuyama and Shugo Imahira – share second place on five-under.

McIlroy, and competing on the suburban Memphis course for a second time in his career, picked-up a first birdie at the par-4 sixth hole but came unstuck at the par-4 ninth when he found the water guarding the green with his second shot and eventually walking off with a double-bogey ‘6’.

He then bogeyed the 10th and 12th holes, and both par-4s, before finally giving the Memphis fans something to cheer about in holing a 12-footer for birdie at the par-3 15th hole and then soon after sending a 16-footer birdie putt to the bottom of the cup at the par-4 15th.

McIlroy then found a greenside bunker short and right of the green with his approach at the par-5 16th but managed to get up-and-down for a birdie ‘4’ to get back to level par.

Then at the last, the par-4 18th, he smashed his drive 330-yards to the corner of the dog-left, and with 118-yards to the pin, McIlroy put his second shot to 17-feet and clearly delighted fans in holing the birdie putt.

“I hit a really good tee shot into 14 and I think that turned things around for me,” said McIlroy.

“I sort of lost my swing a little bit in the middle of the round. I started missing some left, club started laid on too much in the downswing, getting underneath the plane. That’s sort of I think from playing in the wind the last couple weeks, it just sort of happens. But I made a good swing on 14 and then went from there and made some good swings coming home and it was nice to finish the way I did.

“The good thing is there is a lot of par 4s out there that are 470, 480, 490, so if you can drive it well and get it up there and give yourself wedges or short irons into greens so there’s chances for birdies.”

McIlroy had been advised before speaking with the media he had to attend a post-round drugs test so to finish the way he did helped his Memphis disposition.

“If I hadn’t parred my way in and shot 3 over and someone told me I had to go and do a drug test, I wouldn’t have been as happy as I am, so makes it a bit easier,” he said smiling.

“So, it was important. I wanted to bounce back and respond in the right way coming in here. Sort of as soon as I finished on Friday last week, I was like, well, I’ve got another tournament in Memphis next week, get back on the horse and try to shoot four good scores and try to leave this tournament with some positives going into a little mini break before the start of the Playoffs.”