McIlroy and Lowry eight behind inspired MacIntyre in Maryland
Rory McIlroy carded an “awful” level par 70 alongside Scottie Scheffler and found himself eight shots behind a fast-finishing Robert MacIntyre in the BMW Championship in Maryland.
Ranked second in the FedEx Cup standings behind Scheffler, who lies third at Caves Valley Golf Club in Maryland after a 66, McIlroy was rusty with the driver and ended the weather-delayed opening round tied for 15th with Shane Lowry on level par.
“Awful,” McIlroy said of a round where he made three bogeys and a birdie in his first six holes. “Yeah, I got off to a bad start. Sort of pieced it together a little bit in the middle of the round and clawed it back to even par. But drove the ball terribly.
“Then when you're hitting out of the rough from the fairway bunkers here -- when I hit the fairways, I give myself chances. I need to hit more fairways the next three days.”
MacIntyre was inspired on the greens as he birdied his last six holes and fired an eight under 62 to lead by three strokes from Tommy Fleetwood, who is still seeking his first PGA Tour win after coming close again in last week’s FedEx St Jude Championship.
The Holywood star remained second in the standings despite opting to play in steamy Memphis. With starting strokes eliminated this year for next week’s Tour Championship, he’s simply looking to win this week and not worrying about his FedEx ranking.
“I guess it would still be nice to finish second after this week just to get a little bit more cash, I guess,” McIlroy said.
“Yeah, again, you're trying your best to win the golf tournament. I guess you're just not looking at the leaderboards as much because it obviously doesn't really matter heading into next week where you are.”
Lowry is projected to remain 23rd in the standings behind Scheffler after making five birdies and five bogeys - including three dropped shots in his last five holes - in his 70.
As for MacIntyre, who could crack the top four in the standings with a win, the Scot made ten birdies in a scintillating effort to lead in the clubhouse before play was suspended due to darkness at 8:12 p.m.
Bud Cauley was the only player left to complete the round after a day when afternoon thunderstorms led to a delay of 2 hours, 13 minutes.
Lowry made just 72 feet of putts, but MacIntyre made 195 feet as he rolled in putts of 66ft (13th), 40ft (14th), 17ft (15th), 12 ft (16th), 22ft (17th) and 5ft (18th) in a blistering six-birdie finish.
“Yeah, probably the last six holes is probably as good as I've ever putted in a stretch of holes,” said the Scot, whose putting coach is Mike Kanski, the long-time lead coach for the Phil Kenyon Putting Academy at Formby Hall. “Just so consistent.
“But since I changed coach at Pebble Beach this year on the putting, I've turned the right corner.
“I've got back to doing what I'm used to doing. You don't expect to hole the big long putts. I don't even know how long that one was on the par-3 (13th), but it was a long way away.
“But I expect to roll in putts. I work hard at it. I do a lot on my reads. I do a lot on my touch. When you get the eye on, it's free flowing, and it's nice.”
