Rory McIlroy fights back after 'worst possible start' at Tour Championship

Scottie Scheffler leads the way.

DIGGING IN: Rory McIlroy plays his shot from the third tee during the first round of the TOUR Championship at East Lake Golf Club.

East Lake Golf Club on the outskirts of metro Atlanta and Royal Portrush on the North Atlantic will never be confused for one another. But they’ve both, however, delivered brutal blows to Rory McIlroy’s hopes.

Similar to his start in the 2019 Open Championship at Portrush, McIlroy began Thursday’s Tour Championship by hitting his opening drive out of bounds left. This misfire couldn’t be attributed to nerves but instead a short-lived torrential downpour of rain that coincided with his appointment at the first tee.

The resulting triple bogey immediately followed by a bogey on the second erased the four shots McIlroy was gifted in the staggered scoring start and left him even par and 10 strokes behind tournament leader Scottie Scheffler – tied for 27th in a 30-player field.

McIlroy, however, went on a late tear, making consecutive birdies at 14, 15 and 16 and finished with another on the par-5 18th to shoot 3-under 67 to sit at 7-under and tied sixth – one place worse than he started but two shots further behind leader Scottie Scheffler. He finished the round tied sixth at 7-under with Cameron Smith and Sungjae Im.

“I got off to the worst start possible. We got a little unfortunate that we teed off in that big downpour earlier in the day. I tried to guide sort of this little peeler into the fairway at the first and complete double-crossed, body stopped.

“But battled back well. The golf course is really soft and really gettable, so I knew there was a lot of holes out there that you could birdie. I knew my game was good, it was just one of those things. 

"Not the ideal way to start, but proud of how I bounced back from that. I would have been happy just to get back to even par after the first few holes, but to shoot 3-under was great.” McIlroy’s round included the opening triple, eight birdies, four bogeys, one eagle and only four pars. He was a double bogey away from getting Yahtzee!

Dropping four strokes out of the chute is tough to stomach under normal tournament circumstances. It’s another level of frustration when the leader is already staked a six-stroke advantage at the start. In a span of two holes, McIlroy was already 10 shots off the leader before Scheffler had even finished a hole.

McIlroy tried to remain positive instead of frustrated, attacking the softened course after the rain cleared out after the first hole.

“I won the Deutsche Bank a few years ago; I was 4-over through three in Boston and ended up winning that tournament,” he said. “It's not like I haven't done it before. But … it's different when you are giving strokes back. I sort of thought of Tom Kim a few weeks ago in Greensboro. He started with a quad and ended up going on to win the golf tournament.

“You know, it is possible. Anything can be done. I'm just really proud of how I fought back today.” After the brutal start, McIlroy’s round continued to be eventful and volatile from there, but his fortunes ultimately improved along with the weather. He made the turn in 1-over par after an opening nine that included only one par (on No. 7), three birdies, three bogeys, the triple and an eagle chip-in on the par-5 sixth.

That opening nine, however, diminished his hopes of becoming the first three-time winner of the FedEx Cup. By the time leader Scheffler, two groups behind McIlroy, made the first turn himself, Scheffler was 10 ahead of McIlroy and five shots clear of the field at 12-under with a birdie, eagle and bogey on the opening side.

A birdie at 12 with a bogey at 13 left McIlroy still 1-over on his round before he kicked it in gear to salvage a good score that, unlike his experience at Portrush, restored his hopes.

“The last few holes there were huge,” McIlroy said. “I felt like I played myself out of the tournament the first few holes, and then I feel like I played myself back into the tournament the last few holes.

“It depends what Scottie does. I can go out and shoot a really good score tomorrow, but if Scottie is seven or eight or whatever he is ahead of me, then it makes things really difficult. But if I go out and shoot a good score tomorrow and Scottie has a lackluster day, then he brings a lot of guys in it, and over 36 holes anything can happen. I think tomorrow is a pretty pivotal day for the rest of the field just to try to get a little closer to where Scottie is.” 

Scheffler’s 5-under 65 pushed him to 15-under and five shots ahead of Xander Schauffele. Matthew Fitzpatrick (9-under overall) and Joaquin Niemann (8-under) shot the low rounds of the day with 64s to climb to third and T4, respectively.

Patrick Cantlay, the defending FedEx Cup champion who started the day in second two shots behind, struggled to an even-par 70 and shares fourth with Niemann.