Rory McIlroy’s putter was ice cold on a blazing hot first day to the PGA Championship at Baltusrol in New Jersey.
McIlroy’s hope of capturing a fifth Major will now more than likely have to wait eight months to next April’s Masters after a sad-looking four over par first round 74.
McIlroy failed to post one birdie in walking from the course sharing 99th place and then slumping a further 36 spots down the board and just three shots from the bottom of the board as the remaining handful of players headed out onto the course.
It’s the first time in 29 rounds of the season’s final Major Major has failed to record a birdie and the just the fourth occasion in his 32 Major appearances McIlroy’s gone without a birdie.
“Tee to green is not the problem, but when I get to the greens it’s a different story,” said McIlroy.
Rory McIlroy has meltdown with the putter on day one of the 2016 PGA Championship. (Photo – www.pga.com)
“I had a couple of chances early on that I could not convert and then missed a couple of greens and did not get up and down and I was always chasing it from there.
“I really struggled with the pace. They look much quicker than they are and two or three times I had putts within 12 feet that were downhill and left them short.
“I need to be more aggressive with my stroke, figure it out tomorrow and shoot something in the mid-60s and get into the weekend. That’s the first objective. I will stay as patient as I can and try to turn it around.”
In McIlroy’s two PGA Championship victories he begun with scores of 67 in 2012 at Kiawah Island and then in 2014 at Valhalla he posted an opening 66.
It left the current World No. 4 also trailing nine shots behind American Jimmy Walker who enjoyed the clubhouse lead courtesy of a five under par 65.
Walker, 37 is contesting his sixth PGA Championship with a best finish, and the highest result in the Majors, being T7th behind McIlroy in 2014 in Kentucky and in similar sauna-like conditions.
“The heat it the hardest thing to deal with out there as the wind wasn’t blowing, so it was always kind of hot,” he said.
“You are constantly sweating, there’s nothing to cool you off.”
Five-time Major winning Phil Mickelson, who is partnering McIlroy and defending champ Jason Day for the first two days, shot a one over par 71 and in his return to the course where he captured the 2005 PGA Championship.
McIlroy started his round from the 10th but dropped a first shot is missing an eight-footer for par at the 13th.
He then found a green side bunker at the next and some 80 feet short of the flag from where McIlroy took three shots to get down and slip to two over par.
McIlroy was in sand again and this time left of the flag at the par three 16th before then three-putting from 36-feet to now be at three over par.
He put his hand over his eyes in missing a short birdie putt at the par five 17th and with a par at the 18th McIlroy has posted a nine hole run that included 19 putts.
McIlroy then slumped to four over par in finding the rough off the tee and taking his tally of putts to 24 through 11 holes.
Fellow former PGA winner Padraig Harrington was the best of the three Irish out in the morning half of the draw and shooting a one over par 71 and likening his effort to putting on his beloved Stackstown course in suburban Dublin.
“I didn’t putt very well at all and I need to free myself up a bit of the greens as there is plenty of slope, they’re reasonably quick and they’re a bit like putting at Stackstown,” he said.
Harrington’s round was a mix of three birdies, two bogeys and a fourth hole double bogey where he caught the ball ‘heavy’ that failed to clear the water guarding the green.
“It was a five from nowhere,” he said.
“The 7-iron was the right club but I just caught it a bit heavy and even though it looked like it was going to get up, it was straight down the pin, one of those that on a good day it would be stone dead and I would be saying great shot.”
And Harrington had an interesting take on the course named after 1831 murdered Dutch farmer, Boltus (not a but second initial ‘a’) Roll.
“It seemed they had two different people set up the front nine and the back nine,” he said.
“The front-9 pins were the easiest I’ve ever seen in a Major. Much tighter pins on the back-9.
“But then you’d love to play golf here every day of the week.”
And Darren Clarke, competing on an invitation as the current European Ryder Cup Captain, posted the same score as McIlroy but at least he managed a birdie.
In fact, Clarke posted two birdies but also six bogeys.
