McIlroy motors to 65 and early lead as Power suffers on Chicago greens and shoots 76
Rory McIlroy
Rory McIlroy made the perfect start in his bid to win back the world number one ranking when he opened with a five-under 65 to grab a share of the lead with Open champion Brian Harman in the weather-delayed BMW Championship in Chicago.
The world number two can regain top spot from Scottie Scheffler if he wins at Olympia Fields and the American finishes worse than two-way tie for fourth.
It looked like being a long day at the office for the Co Down man when he started with five straight pars and had to get up and down from 30 yards left of the pin for another par at the 183-yard sixth.
But while he hit just three fairways at the North Course, he made five birdies in his last 12 holes to end his day tied with Harman and a shot clear of Matthew Fitzpatrick, Sahith Theegala and Chris Kirk.
“Luckily the golf course is soft,” McIlroy told Golf Channel. “I think back in 2020 If I had to hit three fairways for a round here, I would have been closer to 75 than 65.
“It wasn't too good off the tee. There's a lot of cross winds and I was trying to hit a tonne of drivers and stay aggressive.”
He birdied the seventh from 13 feet, curled in a 14 footer at the ninth to turn in two-under, then hit a wedge to 10 feet at the 10th and made that too.
A long bunker shot to four feet set up another birdie at the par-five 15th before he pitched in from behind the green for an unlikely birdie from greenside rough at the 17th after driving way left into trees.
“I certainly wasn't expecting to make three when the tee shot was in the air but yeah, it was it was a nice one to make,” McIlroy beamed.
“I was trying to get it somewhere around the green get up and down and move on. And you know, I played that one better than that, which was which was a big bonus."
He was joined on five-under by Harman, who chipped in twice to shoot 65 having finished tied 31st in Memphis last week in his first start since winning at Hoylake.
They led by a shot in the clubhouse from Sahith Theegala and England’s Matt Fitzpatrick, who bounced back from finishing 66th in the FedEx St Jude Championship in Memphis with a 66.
“Sometimes it's an advantage coming out of the rough for these approach shots because you know the ball is not going to spin, it's just going to stop,” McIlroy said.
“Not that I was trying to hit it in the rough but I knew that if I did you know I didn't have too much trouble from there.”
If it was a good day for McIlroy, it was a disappointing one for Seamus Power, whose hopes of making the top 30 in the FedExCup standings who qualify for next week’s Tour Championship suffered a killer blow when he three-putted three times en route to a six-over 76.
The West Waterford man, who needs to finish in a two-way tie for 12th to move up from 35th, was 50th in the 50-man field after a 36-putt round.
Power birdied the first but missed three good chances on the next three greens before he three putted the fifth and seventh and dropped further shots at the ninth and 10th.
He dropped another shot at the 15th, where he had to take a penalty drop in the trees, then drove into water and double bogeyed the 17th after another three putt.
