McIlroy gets off to decent start in Turkey

Rory McIlroy needed just three holes to discover his game was still in excellent shape on the first day of the inaugural Turkish Airlines World Golf Final today.

McIlroy revealed yesterday that he had not touched a club since the Ryder Cup came to such a thrilling climax at Medinah nine days ago, admitting he would have to get to the PGA Sultan course at Antalya Golf Club a little earlier than usual “to hit a few balls and see if it’s still there”.

The world number one duly looked a little rusty in the first two holes of his Group One match with American Matt Kuchar, a member of the defeated US team in Chicago, missing the fairway on the first and the green on the par-three second.

But, after pitching to within inches of the hole on both occasions to save par, the 23-year-old then hit a perfect drive on the 531-yard third and a towering long iron to 15ft to set up an eagle three.

That was only good enough to lead by a single shot, however, as Kuchar followed an opening bogey with two birdies in the medal match play format, which means the lowest strokeplay score over 18 holes wins one point.

Each of the eight players – McIlroy, Kuchar, Tiger Woods, Charl Schwartzel, Lee Westwood, Justin Rose, Hunter Mahan and Webb Simpson – will play three matches in the group stages, one today and two on Wednesday.

The winner of Group One will then face the runner-up of Group Two, and vice versa, in Thursday’s semi-finals, with the final to be staged on Friday.

Woods was two shots clear of Schwartzel after opening with a birdie three to the South African’s bogey five, while Mahan and Rose were both one over after two holes and Westwood bogeyed the first to trail Simpson by one.