"Rusty” McIlroy seven back at Sawgrass as Lowry suffers another nightmare finish
Shane Lowry
Rory McIlroy felt some “discomfort” in his back as he opened with a 74 but the real pain was for Shane Lowry as he made a disastrous quadruple bogey eight at the last to shoot 76 in the first round of The Players.
The Clara man was cruising around a rain-softened TPC Sawgrass, two-under for the day and bogey-free as he headed down his final five holes.
A missed par putt from around four and a half feet at the 14th was a setback but he then made a double-bogey six at the 460-yard 15th, taking four to get down from heavy greenside rough, before suffering another painful finish.
He three-putted from long range for a par-five at the 16th for par, and while he made a superb birdie two at the 17th, two visits to the water at the tough 18th led to an eight.
It was another disappointing finish for Lowry, who double-bogeyed the 16th and 17th to lose a three-shot lead in the final round of the Cognizant Classic before bowing out at halfway following a closing bogey in the Arnold Palmer Invitational last week.
Lowry was tied for 99th in the 123-man field when play was suspended with four players still to finish their rounds and Collin Morikawa was a casualty as he injured his back making a practice swing on the 11th tee and withdrew after just two holes.
Five players were tied for the lead on five-under with Lee Hodges, Sepp Starka and Sahith Theegala matching Maverick McNealy’s 67 before being joined by Austin Smotherman, who will have a 15-footer for birdie on the ninth green this morning for a 66 and the outright lead.
The leaders were just a shot clear of Justin Thomas, Russell Henley, Taylor Moore and Cameron Young on a day when a brief thunderstorm softened the course at midday.
McIlroy faced a less fiery course than the one he’d walked for just nine holes with wedge and putter in hand on Wednesday evening as he nursed the back injury that forced him to withdraw from the Arnold Palmer Invitational last Saturday.
But while he was clearly not yet 100pc recovered and struggled from the tee, missing five fairways to the left and three to the right, he was not too displeased to limit the damage to a 74 that left him tied for 69th with Séamus Power.
“No, I would say the most discomfort was like when the ball was below my feet or with chipping,” McIlroy said of his back problem.
“Honestly, overall it was fine. Got a little bit tired at the end of the day, but yeah, it was actually all pretty good.”
He admitted that getting “zero prep” — “I hit maybe 30 golf balls yesterday and then went and chipped and putted around the last six holes last night” — did not help his cause,
But he scrambled well and was surprised not to be further behind as the afternoon wave failed to capitalise on the softer conditions,
“The greens were two feet slower, so much softer just because of the rain,” he said. “So a little bit of an adjustment there.
“I felt like -- it's weird, I obviously played on Friday; it's not as if I've taken a ton of time off. But just felt unbelievably rusty out there.
“Yeah, I'm glad I got through the round. Hopefully, tonight goes well and I'll get out there tomorrow. I was trying to just get back to even par for the day on that back nine. Couldn't quite get there.
“But I’m starting with a couple of sort of birdie chances tomorrow on the back, so as I said, try to get it back to even par, and honestly, I don't feel like I'm that far away.
“No one went really low this afternoon, which I expected them to, just because the conditions were pretty benign.
“So if I can go out and shoot a good one tomorrow, I feel like I'll be right in it for the weekend.”
The Holywood star, who is the defending champion, can join Jack Nicklaus and become just the second man to win the title three times.
He hopes some more physio will ease his back problem and allow him to attack the course.
“It’s more just letting everything sort of settle, and hopefully I'll wake up in the morning feeling just as good if not better than I did today,” he said.
As for Power, the West Waterford man joined Lowry in enduring a bad finish as he bogeyed his 16th hole, the seventh, and took seven at the par-five ninth after finding a tiny pot bunker just short of the green. with his third.
Scottie Scheffler admitted he’s got work to do on his driving after opening with a level par 72.
The world number one is looking to win the title for the third time in four years, but he found just seven fairways on a weather-interrupted morning in Jacksonville and was seen practising in the rain on the range as the afternoon wave took to the course.
“Yeah, just kept going right,” Scheffler said of his play from the tee, which he’s tried to remedy this week by going back to the driver that’s brought him 13 PGA Tour wins over the past two years.
“Hit some better ones on the back, but overall just got to be a little sharper.”
Scheffler started on the back nine and hit just two fairways as he turned in a workman-like one-under par.
He was still one under with three holes to go, but after a brief weather delay, he bogeyed the seventh and eighth before finishing with a birdie.
“I mean, birdieing the last is nice,” he said. “It doesn't taste as good when you bogey the 16th and 17th holes.
“But I felt like I struck my irons better today again, so that's nice. I've got a different driver in the bag than I did last week. Kind of trying to clean things up.”
