Rory McIlroy Sits 5 Back After Solid 2017 PGA Championship 1st Round

Rory McIlroy opened the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Thursday with a one-over 72, putting him five strokes behind leader Thorbjorn Olesen.

It was a disappointing finish to an otherwise solid performance, as a bogey on No. 13 and a double-bogey on No. 14 left McIlroy back in the pack.

You can see the leaderboard below:

McIlroy got off to a strong start, hitting a birdie on No. 3. The Golf Channel shared his excellent chip shot as he went one-under early in his round:

Bogeys on Nos. 4 and 6, however, quickly erased that.

But McIlroy recovered, adding birdies on Nos. 7 and 8 to go into his back-nine at one-under. The PGA Championship shared his par putt on No. 9:

He kept things rolling on No. 10, adding another birdie to go two-under. After two more pars, including the following par save on No. 11, it appeared McIlroy was on cruise control:

That's when things took a turn on Nos. 13 and 14. He stabilized from there, finishing with four straight pars, but the damage had been done.

In many ways, the round was indicative of McIlroy's up-and-down year. He's battled through injuries, missed the cut at the U.S. Open and parted ways with his longtime caddie, J.P. Fitzgerald. He also finished seventh at the Masters, fourth at the Open Championship and has six top-10 finishes on the season. 

He doesn't have a win either, but after Thursday's tough finish he's still in the running at the PGA Championship, though he's not exactly in the best position to end his major drought, which dates back to this event in 2014.

As the European Tour noted, he hasn't responded well to slow starts, either:

One major positive for McIlroy, however, is that he's played extremely well on this course, per ESPN Stats & Information:

Justin Ray of the Golf Channel added more stats to back up McIlroy's dominance on the course:

Add it all up, and McIlroy is hardly out of contention. But he'll need to improve over the next three days if he's going to climb back up the leaderboard.