No panic for Rory McIlroy; nor for Leona Maguire. As the respective DP World Tour Championship in Dubai and the CME Globe Tour Championship in Florida played out the end-of-season schedules with pots of gold for whoever lays claim to the titles, both McIlroy and Maguire were left playing the role of pursuers but with time on their side.
In the case of McIlroy, who headed into the Tour Championship in his quest to add the European Tour order of merit title for the Harry Vardon Trophy to his FedEx Cup success on the PGA Tour, an opening round 71 to US Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick’s 65 saw the pair switch places in that particular battle.
“Certainly not what I was hoping for, three under through eight holes, thinking a solid start with some chances coming up and just started to drive the ball a little crooked on the back nine,” said McIlroy, playing for the first time since his win in The CJ Cup last month.
McIlroy’s homeward journey was a bumpy one with a bogey on the 12th and a failure to birdie the par-five 14th or the drivable par-four 15th compounded by a three-putt bogey on the 16th which he described as “an unforced error.”
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He added: “Obviously I’ve had three weeks off since the CJ Cup, so I’ll trying to knock the rust off a little bit. There was enough good stuff in there. I made five birdies and hit some decent shots. [The course is] much more penal that will it has been in previous years. They have not overseeded it this year, so it’s just that pure Bermuda and the ball sits right at the bottom. It’s very rare you get a decent lie to even have a chance to hold the green or even get it up to the green. There’s a bigger premium on accuracy this year, and I definitely found that out on the back nine today.”
McIlroy at least has a chance to play his way back into the tournament with three rounds remaining and no cut in the limited 50-man field.
Shane Lowry, sixth in the standings heading into the championship, struggled to an opening 73 that required a closing birdie to finally bring a smile to his face.
Fitzpatrick, who had been troubled by a sore throat in the days leading up to the championship, started his round with five successive birdies before cooling down but his 65 enabled him to join compatriot Tyrrell Hatton in a share of the tournament elad.
For Maguire, a birdie-birdie finish in her closing two holes enabled her to sign for an opening round 69, three under par, to lie just three strokes behind clubhouse leader Pajaree Anannarukan in the LPGA Tour Championship which has a €2 million winner’s cheque on offer in the end-of-season showpiece at Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Florida.
Maguire had five birdies and two bogeys in her round, with the flourish at the end moving her inside the top-15.
Anannarukan made her LPGA Tour breakthrough win in the ISPS Handa World Invitational in Galgorm Castle last year but has found this year to be an inconsistent campaign yet with the hope of finishing on a high.
“It’s been a roller-coaster [season] for sure. I started the year pretty good but there was a couple [of months] in the middle during the year that I was not in the position I wanted to be. It’s always a good experience, just to look at it as a good learning experience to try and improve my game and to stay focused and try to stay strong,” she said.
In the RSM Classic on the PGA Tour at Sea Island in Georgia, Séamus Power – currently number one in the FedEx Cup standings after a recent spell that included a win in the Bermuda Championship and a third-placed finish in the Mayakoba – claimed two birdies in his closing four holes for an opening round of four-under-par 66 on the Seaside Course.
Cole Hammer, a 22-year-old American who turned professional back in June after a stellar amateur career, signed for an opening round 64, which included nine birdies and a lone bogey, on the eighth, his 17th, on the Plantation Course.
“I was almost blacked out there for a little bit, it went by in a heartbeat,” said Hammer of getting into the zone in working his way to the top of the leaderboard.
