BMW Championship 2018: Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy Tied for the Lead After Round 1
Two of golf's biggest stars sit atop the leaderboard following the opening round of the 2018 BMW Championship at Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania.
Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods are tied after shooting eight-under 62 in the first round. Xander Schauffele is in third at seven under, with Billy Horschel, Peter Uihlein, Justin Thomas and Alex Noren tied for fourth at six under.
Woods is coming off underwhelming showings at The Northern Trust and Dell Technologies Championship, but Thursday he looked like the golfer who was runner-up to Brooks Koepka in the PGA Championship. His score was his second-best ever in an opening round, per ESPN Stats & Info.
Woods opened with a six-under 29 on his first nine holes. The PGA Tour's official Twitter account noted that number has generally bode well for him in the past:
Woods owed a lot of his success to his irons. According to PGATour.com, he reached 16 of the 18 greens in regulation, and his 3.116 strokes gained from approach to the green was the second-best of the first round.
He pulled off one of the day's best shots when his approach on No. 7 rolled inside a foot of the hole:
McIlroy started on the back nine and was three under through his first four holes. He made the turn with a birdie on No. 18 and then reeled off five straight birdies between Nos. 1 through 5. Back-to-back bogeys on the seventh and eighth holes sent him from being a shot ahead of Woods to a shot behind before he closed out his round with a birdie.
According to PGATour.com, McIlroy is 64th this season in putting strokes gained (.184). He found a nice solution to that problem Thursday, using his approach play to set himself up with easy birdie putts.
His approach on the fourth hole landed within four feet of the cup, and he dropped his tee shot on the fifth hole to within three feet:
ESPN The Magazine's Kevin Van Valkenburg was perplexed by McIlroy's performance after the four-time major champion tied for 50th at the PGA Championship and finished six shots behind winner Bryson DeChambeau at the Dell Technologies Championship:
Considering he was flirting with a 59 to open his tournament, slipping to eight under was a somewhat disappointing way for McIlroy to end his round. Still, the good far outweighed the bad, and he's set up nicely for the rest of the tournament.
With many golf fans hoping to see a head-to-head battle between Woods and McIlroy, Schauffele might end up spoiling the party.
Schauffele got his tournament off on the wrong foot with a bogey on No. 10. That was his only setback of the day, though, as he was bogey-free for the remainder of the round. He hit 11 of the 14 fairways and reached 14 greens in regulation.
Plenty of big names loom a little lower on the leaderboard as well, with Rickie Fowler at five under and Hideki Matsuyama, Jon Rahm, Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson at four under.
Fans couldn't ask for much more from the final stop before the 2018 Tour Championship.
