McIlroy and McDowell must make up ground as Furyk sets pace
American Jim Furyk, 42, leads the event by two strokes in signing for a seven under par 63 with England’s Lee Slattery celebrating his 34th birthday a day earlier with a 65.
McIlroy ended a run of eight sub-par rounds in the lucrative no-cut event with a 70, before McDowell walked from the Firestone course in the last pairing of the round also with a similar level par score.
World No3 ranked McIlroy struggled to be three over par after just four holes in his first event since a lowly 60th place result in last month’s British Open. He dropped shots at his first, second and fourth holes, before regaining the strokes with birdies at seven, 10 and 15.
He arrived in the American Soapbox Derby capital having free wheeled in eight prior Bridgestone rounds with each round in the 60s.
In contrast to McIlroy’s start, McDowell raced to three under par after seven holes, but then dropped shots at eight and nine and, while he birdied 12, he then bogeyed 15 and 17.
“I don’t think I have ever seen Firestone play this tricky and as short as it is playing,” said McDowell. “If you miss a fairway you’re not moving it more than 50 yards, so it’s a good test out there.
“I said early in my round to my trusty steed standing here [caddy, Ken Comboy]: ‘Why isn’t the scoring not that very good?’
“I quickly discovered why. The greens are very firm and fast and I’ve never seen it play as short and so tricky.
“It’s a golf course that’s never really suited me and this is the condition and shape it needs to be in that suits me.
“I hit a lot of quality shots out there to keep me happy and it’s just that I missed a couple of fairways coming in.”
Also signing for a 70 was eight-time Bridgestone champion, Tiger Woods who bogeyed three of his closing six holes.
Michael Hoey’s intended move to play full-time in the States nose-dived on the lush green Firestone course.
Hoey and Portuguese Masters winning partner, Tom Lewis find themselves at the bottom of the 78-player leader board after dismal rounds of eight-over par 78s. Hoey, who is making his event debut, failed to manage a single birdie in dropping four shots over each nine.
A check of Hoey’s first round stats revealed he managed to hit just five of Firestone’s 14 fairways and then a third of the 18 greens.
“I’m totally deflated,” he said. “It’s the same old stuff. It’s very frustrating, and you just can’t come across here and play this poorly.”
Hoey revealed earlier in the week he will use his two weeks in the States, that also includes his debut in next week’s PGA Championship, as a “yardstic”’ in assessing whether he will enter the PGA Tour School at the end of the year.
However, Colin Byrne, the Irish-born caddy to Lewis, put his young player’s round into perspective.
“Well, at least we broke 80,” said Byrne smiling.
And Australia’s Adam Scott admitted he took a good few holes to switch back on after his British Open championship demise, recording a one-over par 71 in his defence of his Firestone crown.
Meanwhile, the Valderrama Masters could be the latest Spanish event cancelled this season. A number of Tour players have revealed the final event on European soil this year is now set to join the Madrid Masters, Castellon Masters and also the Czech Open in being cut due to lack of sponsorship from the schedule.
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