Rory McIlroy

McIlroy played alongside Jon Rahm and Scottie Scheffler, the only two players above him the world rankings, where he endured an erratic day off the tee and a ...

Live coverage continues on Friday from 11.30am on Sky Sports Golf, with a host of extra feeds available via the red button. "They were testing drivers at Riviera [last month], but I just didn't even want to take the chance. Yeah, there's obviously a part of it that's the user, as well.

Former champion cards 76 and sits 12 shots off the early clubhouse lead in Florida.

McIlroy arrived at the PGA Tour's flagship event seeking a return to the world number one spot, but little went right for him on a dismal day one.

He would have identified the par five 16th as an opportunity to gain some ground on the field but a poor tee shot led to his frustration bubbling over. [Rory McIlroy comes up just short at Arnold Palmer Invitational](https://www.belfastlive.co.uk/sport/other-sport/golf/rory-mcilroy-comes-up-just-26395444) [Jack Nicklaus shares Rory McIlroy concern which could cost him more majors](https://www.belfastlive.co.uk/sport/other-sport/golf/jack-nicklaus-shares-rory-mcilroy-26395231) [Rory McIlroy defends PGA Tour no-cut policy despite LIV stars mocking decision](https://www.belfastlive.co.uk/sport/other-sport/golf/rory-mcilroy-defends-pga-tour-26369161) [Rory McIlroy's F-bomb to LIV Golf star hailed highlight of Netflix series](https://www.belfastlive.co.uk/sport/other-sport/golf/rory-mcilroys-f-bomb-liv-26253498) [Rory McIlroy makes bullish claim as he plots more 'glory days'](https://www.belfastlive.co.uk/sport/other-sport/golf/rory-mcilroy-makes-bullish-claim-26192385) [Sign up to our free sports newsletter](https://www.belfastlive.co.uk/newsletter-preference-centre/?view=Solus&mailingListId=9e6fed01-dc22-4b4b-873a-afe983e85ba3&utm_source=solusarticle) to get the latest headlines to your inbox. The Northern Irishman had arrived at the PGA Tour’s flagship event seeking a return to the world number one spot, but little went right for him on day one after beginning with a double bogey. Thankfully McIlroy avoided the water on the iconic 17th hole at Sawgrass where the green is surrounded by a lake. A birdie on the next hole eased the tension somewhat but McIlroy then bogeyed the par four 15th. The star-studded group began at the 10th hole where McIlroy carded a double bogey and already his frustrations were evident in front of a large gallery of spectators.

Rory McIlroy endured a difficult start at the Players Championship as he carded a four-over 76 in his opening round at TPC Sawgrass on Thursday.

"I feel like this is as penal as I’ve seen it out of the rough for a long time. He arrived holding the lead at six under but he hit his tee shot into the lake surrounding the green and only managed to escape with a bogey courtesy of a brilliant pitch shot from the drop zone. It’s golf." "Last week I kind of lost it, I didn’t know where the ball was going and I think this score showed I knew where the ball was going and that gave me a lot of freedom to play golf," he told Sky Sports. Ramey, the 30-year-old from Mississippi whose only PGA Tour win came a year ago in his maiden season, had six birdies in his first 11 holes but turned on the style at the end as he birdied the par-five 16th and then hit it to a foot at the famous 17th to take the outright lead. "I hit a really good shot out of the pine straw there and didn’t capitalise on that and after making bogey on one and three sort of was tough to get it back from there."

RORY McIlroy got off to a poor start at the Players Championship this afternoon.The world number three carded an opening round four-over-par of 76 to.

Congrats Paddy" [ Players Championship](https://www.thesun.ie/sport/golf/10343746/2023-players-championship-purse-tpc-sawgrass/) which is underway at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra, Florida. [The Dubliner](https://www.thesun.ie/who/padraig-harrington/) has been confirmed as an inductee into the [ World Golf Hall of Fame](https://www.thesun.ie/sport/golf/10350791/padraig-harrington-inducted-world-golf-hall-of-fame/). [2019 Open Champion](https://www.thesun.ie/who/shane-lowry/) Shane Lowry was full of praise for his close friend and former Ryder Cup skipper as he took to social media to praise the Irish icon. [touching gesture](https://www.thesun.ie/sport/golf/10355140/shane-lowry-padraig-harrington-world-golf-hall-of-fame/) to his close friend and compatriot Padraig Harrington. [FREE BETS AND BEST NEW CUSTOMER DEALS](https://www.thesun.ie/sport/6644456/betting-offers-and-free-bets-sign-up-deals/)

Rory McIlroy faces a massive uphill task to make the cut in The Players Championship after his driver let him down and he was gobbled up by the thick rough ...

"There's obviously a part of it that's the user, as well. It's quite a lot of user error in there, as well." Yeah, you don't hit it on the fairway here, you're going to struggle."

RORY MCILROY MADE a dismal start at the Players Championship as he fell to four over par in his opening round at TPC Sawgrass on Thursday.

England’s Danny Willett, who was hoping to make the cut in this tournament for the first time in six attempts, was among the early starters and recovered to post a level-par 72 after dropping a shot on his first hole. He followed up with successive birdies on the 18th and first to briefly move to five under par but he later fell away and signed for a one-over 73 after double bogeys on the sixth and eighth. Playing the back nine first, he regained a stroke with a birdie at the 11th but further bogeys on the 15th, first and third left him well behind the early leaders Collin Morikawa and Chad Ramey on six under.

The Northern Irishman was the odd man out in the marquee group of the first two rounds as Jon Rahm and Scottie Scheffler, the only two players ahead of him in ...

“I feel like this is as penal as I’ve seen it out of the rough for a long time. He arrived holding the lead at six under but he hit his tee shot into the lake surrounding the green and only managed to escape with a bogey courtesy of a brilliant pitch shot from the drop zone. “Last week I kind of lost it, I didn’t know where the ball was going and I think this score showed I knew where the ball was going and that gave me a lot of freedom to play golf,” he told Sky Sports. “I hit a lot of putts and just kept burning edges to go to one that looked like it was going in. Ramey, the 30-year-old from Mississippi whose only PGA Tour win came a year ago in his maiden season, had six birdies in his first 11 holes but turned on the style at the end as he birdied the par-five 16th and then hit it to a foot at the famous 17th to take the outright lead. It’s golf.”

The Northern Irishman had arrived at the PGA Tour's flagship event seeking a return to the world number one spot, but little went right for him on day one after ...

Australian Min Woo Lee put himself among the early front-runners after six birdies in his opening 13 holes but he finished on four under after closing with back-to-back bogeys. He followed up with successive birdies on the 18th and first to briefly move to five under par but he later fell away and signed for a one-over 73 after double bogeys on the sixth and eighth. The Northern Irishman had arrived at the PGA Tour’s flagship event seeking a return to the world number one spot, but little went right for him on day one after beginning with a double bogey.

The Northern Irishman was the odd man out in the marquee group of the first two rounds as Jon Rahm and Scottie Scheffler, the only two players ahead of him in ...

“I feel like this is as penal as I’ve seen it out of the rough for a long time. He arrived holding the lead at six under but he hit his tee shot into the lake surrounding the green and only managed to escape with a bogey courtesy of a brilliant pitch shot from the drop zone. “Last week I kind of lost it, I didn’t know where the ball was going and I think this score showed I knew where the ball was going and that gave me a lot of freedom to play golf,” he told Sky Sports. “I hit a lot of putts and just kept burning edges to go to one that looked like it was going in. Ramey, the 30-year-old from Mississippi whose only PGA Tour win came a year ago in his maiden season, had six birdies in his first 11 holes but turned on the style at the end as he birdied the par-five 16th and then hit it to a foot at the famous 17th to take the outright lead. It’s golf.”

Following an interesting and industry-shaping press conference on Tuesday in which McIlroy discussed the future of the PGA Tour and professional golf, he was ...

McIlroy will play late on Friday alongside Rahm and Scottie Scheffler as he tries to shoot something silly to play his way inside the cut and perhaps back into the tournament a bit. This was not helped by the fact that he left a shot in the bunker on that same closing hole. That's why his number ballooned right past even par to 4 over, one of the worst scores in the morning wave. He bounced back with birdie at the par-5 11th, but even his biggest highlight on his first nine (the back nine on the course) wasn't actually a highlight. McIlroy made just one putt longer than 4 feet, and it came on the last hole for bogey to avoid shooting 77. (He played the par-5s at even par, a horrible number for him.)

McIlroy's surprising score to start this Players Championship was his highest on the PGA Tour in more than a year.

“There’s obviously a part of it that’s the user, as well. In the first round here he took 31 swipes, holed just 42 feet of putts and lost more than 2 ½ shots to the field, ranking 142nd out of 144. Just struggled a little bit off the tee the last couple weeks.” Afterward, McIlroy expressed some frustration that he hasn’t been able to dial in his latest driver, after a mid-tournament switch last month during the Genesis Invitational. “You don’t hit it on the fairway here, you’re going to struggle.” In all, he just six of 14 fairways, some of them by wide margins to the right.

Rory McIlroy posted an opening 76 at the Players Championship due to some wayward driving, his worst competitive score in nearly two years.

I need to regroup and try to shoot a good one tomorrow and be here for the weekend.” Unsurprisingly, McIlroy was seen battering drives down the range long after his round had concluded. There’s obviously a part of it that’s the user, as well. “They were testing drivers at Riviera but I just didn’t even want to take the chance. “That’s the reason the score is what it is.” McIlroy said: “I went to that new driver in Riviera, and it’s just not … After all, a bounce is precisely what McIlroy needs during round two in order to survive for the weekend.

Rory McIlroy says he chose to take his favorite driver out of play for fear that the face had softened and it would not meet USGA specs.

“There's not a lot of left in it, which I like,” he said. He said he likes how the new driver has controlled his miss. Under a recently revised interpretation of the rules, a driver that was conforming is worn into a non-conformiong state, "the damage will be deemed to have occurred after the start of the previous round [i.e., prior to the field test], so that no retrospective penalties would be applied, unless the player had knowledge, prior to the field test, that the club did not conform." He said the problem may have been a driver that was too hot and one he hasn’t figured out yet. “I wish I could use my driver from last year, but I can't just because you use a driver for so long, and it starts to get a little too ... He switched to TaylorMade’s latest Stealth 2 Plus, the second version of the company’s drivers that feature a carbon composite face.

Chad Ramey's 64 was just one short of equalling the course record.

“I feel like this is as penal as I’ve seen it out of the rough for a long time. He arrived holding the lead at six under but he hit his tee shot into the lake surrounding the green and only managed to escape with a bogey courtesy of a brilliant pitch shot from the drop zone. “Last week I kind of lost it, I didn’t know where the ball was going and I think this score showed I knew where the ball was going and that gave me a lot of freedom to play golf,” he told Sky Sports. It’s golf.” “I hit a lot of putts and just kept burning edges to go to one that looked like it was going in. “I hit a really good shot out of the pine straw there and didn’t capitalise on that and after making bogey on one and three sort of was tough to get it back from there.”

Former champion cards 76 and sits 12 shots off the early clubhouse lead in Florida.

In short, Sawgrass is not a place to be playing from the rough: “I feel like this is as penal as I’ve seen it out of the rough for a long time. I think you’d have to go back to when the tournament was played in May, when we were in Bermuda rough, for it to be as penal as that. It pretty much summed up his woes, although McIlroy himself identified a three-putt on the par-five 16th, where he’d found the green in two, as a primary cause in stopping him getting any momentum. All were upstaged by Ramey, a player with one tour win – last year’s Corales Puntacana – in a professional career that has been spent mainly on the Korn Ferry circuit. But it proved to be a disobedient part of his club armoury for the test around the Pete Dye-designed course where McIlroy had triumphed in 2019. Yeah, there’s obviously a part of it that’s the user, as well.

The Northern Irishman was the odd man out in the marquee group of the first two rounds as Jon Rahm and Scottie Scheffler, the only two players ahead of him in ...

“I feel like this is as penal as I’ve seen it out of the rough for a long time. He arrived holding the lead at six under but he hit his tee shot into the lake surrounding the green and only managed to escape with a bogey courtesy of a brilliant pitch shot from the drop zone. “Last week I kind of lost it, I didn’t know where the ball was going and I think this score showed I knew where the ball was going and that gave me a lot of freedom to play golf,” he told Sky Sports. It’s golf.” “I hit a lot of putts and just kept burning edges to go to one that looked like it was going in. “I hit a really good shot out of the pine straw there and didn’t capitalise on that and after making bogey on one and three sort of was tough to get it back from there.”

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Rory McIlroy's opening round at THE PLAYERS Championship was defined by the par-5 16th hole.

McIlroy will aim to outpace his playing partners Friday in hopes of returning to the mix, particularly with the flat stick. “I hit a really good shot out of the pine straw there and didn’t capitalize on that, and making bogey on 1 and bogey on 3 … You’ve got the four par-5s, and then … McIlroy’s day began with a double bogey at the par-4 10th hole; his approach missed the green left, then his third skittered across the green into a greenside bunker. McIlroy missed the cut at TPC Sawgrass in 2021, then finished T33 last year. His low punch landed just short of the green and released to 30 feet, leaving an eagle try.

A wayward Rory McIlroy endured a dreadful start at the Players Championship after an opening four-over-par round of 76 at TPC Sawgrass left him 12 shots off ...

“I feel like this is as penal as I’ve seen it out of the rough for a long time. He arrived holding the lead at six under but he hit his tee shot into the lake surrounding the green and only managed to escape with a bogey courtesy of a brilliant pitch shot from the drop zone. “Last week I kind of lost it, I didn’t know where the ball was going and I think this score showed I knew where the ball was going and that gave me a lot of freedom to play golf,” he told Sky Sports. It’s golf.” “I hit a lot of putts and just kept burning edges to go to one that looked like it was going in. “I hit a really good shot out of the pine straw there and didn’t capitalise on that and after making bogey on one and three sort of was tough to get it back from there.”

McIlroy played alongside Jon Rahm and Scottie Scheffler, the only two players above him the world rankings, where he endured an erratic day off the tee and a ...

Live coverage continues on Friday from 11.30am on Sky Sports Golf, with a host of extra feeds available via the red button. "They were testing drivers at Riviera [last month], but I just didn't even want to take the chance. Yeah, there's obviously a part of it that's the user, as well.

Rory McIlroy went straight from the final green to the driving range after slumping to an opening round of 76 at The Players Championship.

The intimidating sight of Collin Morikawa is looming large in Ramey’s mirrors. “I hit a really good shot out of the pine straw there and didn’t capitalise on that, and making bogey on one and bogey on three … - T6. - T3. - 2. - 1.

Chad Ramey upstaged the PGA Tour's biggest names to claim a shock lead after the opening round of The Players, where Rory McIlroy endured a nightmare start ...

Live coverage continues on Friday from 11.30am on Sky Sports Golf, with a host of extra feeds available via the red button. "Not easy at all," Ramey said. Scheffler is joined in the group on four under by Min Woo Lee, who bogeyed his final two holes after suffering cramp late in his round, with Jordan Spieth starting his back nine with three consecutive birdies on his way to a three-under 69. Morikawa held the outright advantage earlier in the day after mixing five birdies with a stunning eagle at the par-five second, where he fired his approach to within four feet of the flag, while Suh made a late charge for the lead when he posted five birdies in a five-hole stretch from the seventh to join the group tied-third. Scheffler birdied three of his last four holes to card an opening-round 68 and current world No 1 Rahm lies seven back after a one-under 71, while McIlroy is in danger of missing the cut after double-bogeying his opening hole and adding four bogeys in a frustrating four-over 76. Collin Morikawa holds second spot and world No 2 Scottie Scheffler is within four of the lead, with Rory McIlroy 12 strokes off the pace struggling to an opening 76; Watch the second round live on Friday from 11.30am on Sky Sports Golf, with extra feeds via the red button

After a disappointing opening four-over 76 at the Players Championship, Rory McIlroy explained why he left behind his driver of choice.

McIlroy is three strokes off the current cut line and in need of a big second round if he is to give himself a chance this weekend. When asked if his new driver showed a tendency off the tee, McIlroy said, “If anything there’s not a lot of left in it, which I like. “Yeah, there’s obviously a part of it that’s the user, as well. The more the face flexes on impact, the more the metal — or carbon, in the case of McIlroy’s Stealth 2 Plus — starts to fatigue. “I just was not comfortable knowing that it could feel — doesn’t look good on me, doesn’t look good on TaylorMade.” If the driver’s face is too fast, it can be deemed non-conforming/illegal.

The Northern Irishman was the odd man out in the marquee group of the first two rounds as Jon Rahm and Scottie Scheffler, the only two players ahead of him in ...

“I feel like this is as penal as I’ve seen it out of the rough for a long time. He arrived holding the lead at six under but he hit his tee shot into the lake surrounding the green and only managed to escape with a bogey courtesy of a brilliant pitch shot from the drop zone. “Last week I kind of lost it, I didn’t know where the ball was going and I think this score showed I knew where the ball was going and that gave me a lot of freedom to play golf,” he told Sky Sports. It’s golf.” “I hit a lot of putts and just kept burning edges to go to one that looked like it was going in. “I hit a really good shot out of the pine straw there and didn’t capitalise on that and after making bogey on one and three sort of was tough to get it back from there.”