McIlroy off to a flyer at rain-delayed Doral
While heavy afternoon rain delayed his WGC-Cadillac Championship challenge at the revamped Blue Monster by nearly two and a half hours, the tropical weather couldn’t dampen his spirits and his bid for his first title of the season as he raced to within a couple of shots of the lead late in the day.
After finishing second, ninth and second in his first three strokeplay starts of the year, the Holywood star was delighted to start like the tornado that threatened Miami for much of the afternoon.
He rattled off three birdies in his first four holes and four in his first six and shrugged off three bogeys as no big deal as rain and the threat of a tornado delayed proceedings.
One under through nine when play was called off, he came back out and birdied his 10th hole from nine feet to share third place on two under, just two shots behind early pacesetter Jason Dufner, who had played 11 holes.
“Of course I wanted to get a fast start, I’m playing well and I’m comfortable with my game,” McIlroy said during the delay.
“I wasn’t going to let one bad day last week sort of derail the good path that I’m on.”
The world No 6 started on the back nine and birdied the 10th, 12th and 13th and then followed a bogey at the 14th with another birdie at the 15th before back to back bogeys at the 17th and 18th left him on one under par when play was called off.
“It was a tough day,” McIlroy said during the delay.
“It was windy out there with a couple of tricky pin positions.
“But I got off to a really good start, three under through four holes, and then bogeyed the last couple of holes play that I had, 17 and 18.
“But it’s not a bad thing, coming off two bogeys, I don’t mind. You can sort of regroup and start fresh for the next nine holes, it’s not so bad.”
With Jason Day pulling out with a thumb injury on the range, McIlroy and Open champion Phil Mickelson were forced to go out on the course as a two-ball.
But it was the Northern Irishman who produced all the fireworks, brilliantly two putting for a birdie four at the 10th.
He dove into trees right of the 12th but got up and down from sand short of the green for another birdie four and then holed a 53-footer for an incredible birdie two at the 13th to soar up the leaderboard.
He bogeyed the 13th, finding sand twice before missing a nine-footer for par but hit back by punching “a really nice little seven-iron” under the wind to eight feet at the new, par-three 15th to get back to three under.
His round was marred when he three-putted the 17th from more than 60-feet for his second bogey of the day.
And he then did well just to drop one shot at the tough 18th, where his drive kicked viciously left into the lake.
Far from despondent, he was upbeat about his game as he prepared to go back out again and chase down an opening round in the 60s.
“I hit a really good drive off of 18 and it just it pitched on the fairway and went in the water,” he said.
“But Phil got unlucky, too, because he actually pitched his second shot on the green and it went in the water.”
Mickelson also birdied the par-five first to be one under through 10 holes but Graeme McDowell was two over par through eight and Tiger Woods one over through seven.
The Ulsterman started with a bogey six at the first, where he pushed his approach into the new lake right of the green.
He then holed a bunker shot for a birdie at the next, bogeyed the third after finding sand twice and followed a fine birdie from seven feet at the fifth with another bogey at the seventh, where he again found water right of the green with his approach.
After the restart he shot his approach left in the water at the par-five eighth to run up a six but he was still happier than Aussie Brett Rumford, who hit three shots into the lake at the new-look, par-five 10th and started with an 11 before taking six at the par-five 12th to be seven over through nine holes.
