PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — The opening round of the 50th Players Championship turned into a birdie-fest, and no one made more than Rory McIlroy. The Northern Irishman carded 10 birdies in all but tugged two drives into the water that resulted in a 7-under 65 and dashed his hopes of a course-record tying round at the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass on Thursday.
“It would’ve been nice to shoot 62 and not hit two in the water,” McIlroy said.
His score was matched by Xander Schauffele, who managed a few heroics of his own to keep bogey off the card and shoot a 7-under 65 to share the early lead at the PGA Tour’s flagship event.
After a final-round 76 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational on Sunday, McIlroy seethed at his poor play, which sent him tumbling to a T-21 finish.
“Last day at Bay Hill was a bit of a wake-up call,” McIlroy said.
Instead of taking Monday off, he spent five hours on the range cleaning up his technique and figuring out a swing flaw. But doing it on the practice tee is one thing – doing it under the heat of competition is another. At No. 10, McIlroy’s first hole of the day he faced a pin tucked left, the very shot he said he has struggled with this season, and wedged from 110 yards to 5 feet. He received further confirmation two holes later, when he hit a knock-down shot from 64 yards to 4 feet.
“That could’ve been the best shot of my day, something I’ve really struggled with the past couple of weeks,” he said.
Players: Leaderboard, tee times, hole-by-hole
On a warm, sunny day with barely a breath of wind, McIlroy took advantage of receptive greens, making birdie on the first three holes of the day and six of the first eight before pulling his tee shot into the water at 18 and making bogey. He did the same thing at No. 7, by which time he had reached 8 under for the day, which resulted in a double bogey. There was a lengthy discussion over McIlroy’s drop after the tee shot at seven bounced on land and into the water.
Fellow competitors Viktor Hovland and Jordan Spieth argued that McIlroy’s ball bounced below the red line marking the penalty area and that he should drop farther back than where McIlroy was considering his drop. McIlroy was adamant that he saw the ball land above the red line. But he ended up dropping farther back, closer to where Spieth and Hovland contended he should.
“He was just trying to make sure that I was going to do the right thing,” McIlroy said of Spieth’s involvement in McIlroy’s drop on No. 7. “If anything, I was being conservative with it. I think at the end of the day we’re all trying to protect ourselves, protect the field, as well.”
McIlroy, the 2019 Players champion, blamed himself for not committing fully to his swings on the two water balls and described them as “guide-y,” and said he would work on his driver at the range. Still, he recorded his most birdies in 41 rounds played in this championship.
Schauffele, who also started on the back nine, had his own impressive run of birdies, recording four in a row starting at No. 18, and five in a span of six holes en route to his 65. The highlight of his round came at No. 7, too, after an equally poor drive. Whereas McIlroy pulled his tee shot left into the water, Schauffele blocked his to the right into a forest of trees. He had a small window and attempted the hero shot, hoisting an 8-iron back into play from where he was able to get up and down from 45 yards to protect his first bogey-free round in 15 rounds at the Stadium Course.
“That par on 7 may have been the best par I’ve ever seen,” said Austin Kaiser, Schauffele’s caddie. “I was trying to tell him to chip it out, make bogey and move on. He said screw it and went for it, and this time he was right and it paid off.”
Xander Schauffele cards a bogey-free 65 in the first round of THE PLAYERS Championship, his first career bogey-free score in 15 rounds at THE PLAYERS.
— PGA TOUR Communications (@PGATOURComms) March 14, 2024