Four-time major winner Rory McIlroy matched a course record with 10 birdies to share the early lead with reigning Olympic champion Xander Schauffele while Australian Jason Day is lurking close behind after Thursday’s opening round of The Players Championship.
Schauffele fired a bogey-free, seven-under par 65 and was level with McIlroy atop the US PGA Tour leaderboard after 18 holes at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.
The 30-year-old American, who hasn’t won since the 2022 Scottish Open, found nine of 14 fairways in his first bogey-free round of 15 at the Players.
“The bogeys, or the scares of a bogey, come when you miss the fairways,” Schauffele said. “The rough is pretty thick. Shockingly thick in some cases. You’ve just got to keep it on the short grass.”
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World number two McIlroy, the 2019 Players winner, stumbled to a 76 in his final round last week at Bay Hill but bounced back after working on his irons.
“Overall I’m really happy with how the day went,” McIlroy said.
“Much improved from Sunday at Bay Hill. Put a lot of work in over the last three days. Feel like I saw a lot of progress out there.”
“Iron play was much improved and that’s something I’ve worked a lot on. I hit balls for five hours on Monday to try and figure it all out and I feel like I got somewhere. It was a continuation of the other things I had been doing well, putted well the last three rounds last week and that fed into today. Just really happy to see some iron shots go close again.”
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Day, meanwhile, had a five-birdie, no-bogey 67 to sit just two behind McIlroy and Schauffele in what was an impressive bounce back effort after last week’s T36 finish at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
“It’s great,” Day said.
“A bit of a dramatic difference between my hitting from last week to this week. Obviously it’s only the first day, but felt like I did a lot of good quality work with [coach] Chris [Como] at the start of the week.
“Drove it nice. I think that’s probably one of the most crucial things is to drive it well here. Even though it’s not like overly long, getting it in the fairway is important.It was nice to be able to capitalise on the par-5s today, keep the 5s off the scorecard and birdie those.”
Of course, Day is a previous winner of The Players Championship having triumphed in 2016, although the Australian doesn’t see an advantage in his previous success.
“I’d like to say yes, but unfortunately no,” Day said.
“It’s one of those golf courses where previously, before I won the event, I didn’t have a lot of great results.
“Then I won the event, and since then I’ve had some decent finishes.
“Granted, we went from May to March, so that was a bit of a change, too. The style of the golf course we used to play in May was totally different compared to now. I hit a lot more drivers off the tees.
“It’s super important to hit fairways now, whereas before you’d miss a fairway you’d be like, it’s not too bad, I can run something up, and it’s no problem.
“Things play a little bit softer now and they’re very thick out of the rough. So yeah, the style of game is different.”
Memorable moments at the Island Green | 01:57
Elsewhere New Zealand’s Ryan Fox, who had the first back-to-back eagles in Players history after an eagle at the par-5 16th, dropping his second shot inches from the hole, and an ace at the famed par-3 17th island hole on his way to shooting 69.
“I mean, it’s such an iconic hole, and it’s an intimidating shot. I don’t care who you are. You get up there, most of the crowd probably either wants you to make a 1 or hit it in the water, so I’m glad to be on the right side of it in that respect,” Fox later said.
“When we got to the tee, it was kind of a good number for me. It was a nice gap wedge and you know you’ve got a little bit of a backstop there, and I was pretty chuffed to look up and see it going down the flag, and obviously a little bit of luck for it to come down the slope and go back in, but I’m certainly not complaining.”
Sawgrass offered frustration as well, with Canada’s Adam Hadwin knocking his second shot at 18 into the water and then hurling his club into the water seconds later. He closed with a bogey to shoot 75.
It marked the first time in Hawdin’s career that he had hit a golf ball in the water on the 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass during the Players Championship.
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Another Canadian, Nick Taylor was third in the clubhouse on 66. Sixth-ranked Schauffele began on the back nine and birdied the par-5 11th after reaching the green in two then added another birdie on a 13-foot putt at the 12th.
At the 18th, Schauffele dropped his approach inside three feet from the hole to set up a birdie that began a run of four in a row, the highlight among them a 25-foot birdie putt at the par-3 third.
Schauffele added a final birdie after dropping his approach at the fifth just inside three feet.
McIlroy, who also began at the 10th, birdied his first three holes — the 10th on a putt from just inside six feet, the par-5 11th on a tap-in after reaching the green in two and the 12th after landing his approach inside five feet of the hole.
“That second shot on 10 and hitting it in close proved I could do what I was doing in practice under the heat of competition,” McIlroy said.
“It was a nice way to start.”
He birdied the 14th from just inside 15 feet, the par-5 16th after pitching his third shot inches from the hole and the par-3 17th island hole from just beyond six feet.
McIlroy found water off the tee at the 18th hole and made bogey but answered with a birdie at the par-5 second after reaching the green in two.
McIlroy sank birdie putts from 10 feet at the fourth and 15 feet at the sixth but splashed his tee shot again at the seventh on his way to a double bogey that tumbled him from the lead.
The Northern Ireland star answered with a 17-foot birdie putt at the par-5 18th, becoming the fifth golfer to make 10 birdies in a single Players round.
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