Rory McIlroy roars to the front of the PGA Championship

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This article was published 19/05/2022 (1594 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Fans of Rory McIlroy were waiting for the disappointment to come. It tends to happen during the first round of major championships, certainly recently.

But the disappointment never came Thursday at the PGA Championship. McIlroy, who hadn’t broken 70 in the opening round of a major in his last five tries, shot a 5-under 65 to take the lead at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Okla.

When he walked in to address the assembled media, the first question was slightly tongue in cheek: The questioner wondered, “yes or no,” is this kind of start was what McIlroy was looking for?”

“Yes or no? No, no, I’d rather shoot 74 and try to make the cut tomorrow,” McIlroy said, with a laugh.

Although he has become accustomed to that scenario of late, McIlroy will start Friday one shot ahead of Will Zalatoris and Tom Hoge. Tournament favourite Scottie Scheffler, the world No. 1 and a four-time winner on the PGA Tour this season — the Masters among those titles — is six back after a 71.

McIlroy’s 65 was his lowest opening round at a major since the U.S. Open in 2011. He went on to win that week for his first major title.

He was so in the zone Thursday that his scorecard didn’t feature anything higher than a four. The last time he did that was the third round of The CJ Cup in the fall, another event he would go on to win. He made seven birdies Thursday.

“I didn’t encounter too many of those tricky scenarios today, but it can certainly be tricky,” McIlroy said of the golf course, which didn’t yield as many low scores in the afternoon as the winds picked up. “You get yourself out of position here and you just try to make a par and run to the next.”

McIlroy, a two-time PGA Championship winner, said he was able to stay in his “own little world” and that was the key.

The Northern Irishman was able to build off his fine play recently, he said. He finished fifth at the Wells Fargo Championship a few weeks ago and was runner-up at the Masters. McIlroy fired a Sunday 64 at Augusta National, which tied for the lowest final-round score in tournament history. Then came Thursday’s 65.

Only Brooks Koepka, at the 2019 PGA Championship, has ever shot lower in back-to-back major championship rounds.

“I think when your game is feeling like that, it’s just a matter of going out there and really sticking to your game plan,” McIlroy said.

McIlroy is grouped with Tiger Woods and Jordan Spieth for the first two rounds, both of whom who also were big parts of the pre-tournament discussion. The PGA Championship is the only one of the men’s majors to elude Spieth as he chases the career Grand Slam. Although he has won and finished second in his last two PGA Tour starts, Spieth struggled Thursday, shooting a 2-over 72. Woods was 4 over.

McIlroy said it was a “cool group” to be part of and it didn’t feel as claustrophobic as some other stops on the PGA Tour, despite the big number of fans.

“Here there are these big, wide corridors. I feel like there is a lot of room, so it doesn’t feel as oppressive as some other venues,” he said.

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What has been weighing on McIlroy more of late is his major championship drought. The former world No. 1 hasn’t won one of golf’s big ones since the 2014 PGA Championship, although he has seemingly done everything else in the game since.

While there have been plenty of other names trying to usurp McIlroy as one of the game’s major alphas, he put on a vintage performance at Southern Hills driving the ball on a string and rolling putts in with ease.

“I was playing to my spots, and (McIlroy and Spieth) obviously have a different game plan,” Woods said of his younger contemporaries. “The game is just different. It’s much more aggressive now.”

It was an aggressive day for McIlroy, in the best of ways. He has either led or been within one stroke of the lead after the first round in his four major triumphs. He has started well again; now it’s about how he finishes.

Adam Stanley is an Ottawa-based contributor to the Star’s Sports section and the host of golf podcast Next Round’s On Me. Follow him on Twitter: @adam_stanley