Rors Felt ‘UnBelievably Rusty But Glad I Got Through’ Day One In His Players Defence.

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In the five days since Rory McIlroy pulled out of the Arnie Palmer Invitational he’s hit one bucket of golf balls and that  was late on the eve in the defence of his Players Championship at Ponte Vedra.

McIlroy indicated he used nothing lower than a 6-iron on the TPS Sawgrass practice range before undertaking some chipping and putting over some six holes of the course proper.

There was a warm welcome for playing partners Hideki Matsuya and Xander Schauffele but then there did seem a lot more applause for the popular Nortern Irishman.

Any doubt over McIlroy’s well-being seemed to silenced when he sent a 295-yard drive down the rightside of the fairway, leaving himself just 97-yards to some 36-feet from the pin, from where he two-putted for a par 4.

If there any sign of concern, it was a wild drive left off the par-4, fourth tee, a shot at 1988 Players Championship winner Mark O’Meara, and commentating for the Tour’s Sirius XM, commentated: “In all my years playing this course, I’ve never seen anyone hit the ball so far left at the fourth than Rory’s shot today“.

McIlroy’s shot ended in a bogey while he also dropped a shot at the fifth before posting his only birdie at the par-4 sixth hole, and after his shot of the day in landing a 157-yard to just a foot, and with rain falling at the time.

He pared the next four holes, bogeyed 11 and ended with six straight pars.

Rors agreed to answer a handful of questions.

Q: Were there any problems with the back at all today?

RORY McILROY: No, I would say the most discomfort was like when the ball was below my feet or with chipping. Just like getting down a little bit to it. Honestly, overall it was fine. Got a little bit tired at the end of the day, but yeah, it was actually all pretty good.

Q. How has your preparation maybe changed this week with the injury?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, I’ve sort of had zero prep. I hit maybe 30 golf balls yesterday and then went and chipped and putted around the last six holes last night. But I felt like from what I experienced yesterday evening in terms of like the golf course and the greens compared to what we played today, it was so different. The greens were two feet slower, so much softer just because of the rain. So a little bit of an adjustment there.

Q. Did you have to lower expectations just because of the lack of prep?

RORY McILROY: Yeah. Yeah, I felt like — it’s weird, I obviously played on Friday; it’s not as if I’ve taken a ton of time off. But just felt like unbelievably rusty out there.

Yeah, I’m glad I got through the round. Hopefully tonight goes well and I’ll get out there tomorrow, and I was trying to just get back to even par for the day on that back nine. Couldn’t quite get there. But starting with a couple of sort of birdie chances tomorrow on the back, so as I said, try to get it back to even par, and honestly, I don’t feel like I’m that far away. No one went really low this afternoon, which I expected them to, just because the conditions were pretty benign. So, yeah, if I can go out and shoot a good one tomorrow, I feel like I’ll be right in it for the weekend.

Q. As far as between now and when you tee off tomorrow, is there more work than you have to do usually just because of the back?

RORY McILROY: No. It’s probably — yeah, maybe a little more work on the body. Just treatment and maybe some stim and whatever else, but actually not really. It’s more just letting everything sort of settle, and hopefully I’ll wake up in the morning feeling just as good if not better than I did today.



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