Rory McIlroy at Deutsche Bank Championship 2016: Friday Score and Reaction
Rory McIlroy recovered from a dreadful start to the first round at the 2016 Deutsche Bank Championship in Norton, Massachusetts, on Friday, posting an even-par 71 to kick off the second event in the FedEx Cup playoffs.
The Northern Irishman was six strokes off the lead when he walked off the course, with the afternoon wave of play ongoing. It could have been a lot worse, however, after he found himself at four over par through just three holes.
Let's check out the hole-by-hole results for McIlroy's opening round at TPC Boston:
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| Par | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 35 |
| Score | 4 | 4 | 7 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 37 |
| Total | E | +1 | +4 | +3 | +3 | +3 | +3 | +3 | +2 | - |
| Par | 4 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 36 |
| Score | 3 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 34 |
| Total | +1 | +1 | +1 | +1 | +1 | +1 | E | E | E | - |
And here's a look at the updated tournament leaderboard:
McIlroy, who started the week sitting in 38th in the FedEx Cup standings, is trying to rediscover his magic on the greens. His putter let him down in a significant way last week at The Barclays, where he missed a series of short putts.
Brian Wacker of Golf Digest noted the world's fifth-ranked player isn't expecting instant results after hiring Phil Kenyon to help get him out of the funk:
"It's a work in progress. Last week was a case of I was really concentrating too much on what I was trying to do with my technique rather than just trying to hole putts. So hopefully it can start to begin to feel a little more natural this week and moving forward.
If I can be really comfortable with my putting going to Augusta next April, that's my timeline, so that's a seven- or eight-month period where I can sort of try to get it right.
"
It didn't take long to see the stroke remains a work in progress. McIlroy three-putted the 11th green for a bogey, his second hole of the afternoon, including a miss from just outside three feet.
He followed up the short-range miss by making a mess of the 12th hole. A wayward tee shot landed in the native area, and it took two shots, along with a penalty stroke, before he got out of trouble. However, he made a 14-foot putt to avoid further damage.
Nevertheless, the forgettable start left him in a miserable position, as Jason Sobel of ESPN.com noted:
"Rory McIlroy starts par-bogey-triple. Three spots from the bottom of the leaderboard after just three holes.
— Jason Sobel (@JasonSobelESPN) September 2, 2016"
Randall Mell of Golf Channel passed along comments from the outlet's Brandel Chamblee about the drop in form for one of the world's most talented players:
McIlroy bounced back over the remaining portion of the back nine, though. He got a stroke back on the 13th hole thanks to a terrific approach shot and then took advantage of the par-five 18th to prevent the opening nine holes from being a total disaster.
His play continued to trend in the right direction on the front nine. He birdied the first, and after a five-hole trip on the par train, he finally worked his way back to even par with another birdie on the par-five seventh.
The four-time major champion closed his round with back-to-back pars. Although it may look like a routine 71 on the leaderboard, it was anything but for the event's 2012 champion.
Looking ahead, McIlroy has a lot of work ahead of him heading into Saturday's round, but the tournament isn't a total loss, as it started to seem after three holes. Nobody was able to pull away from the field in the first round, so there's still time to make a charge.
The biggest reason to remain optimistic about his chances this week was the sporadic improvement on the greens. After an early hiccup, he started rolling in some mid-range putts and looked more confident than he did just one week ago.
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