Despite being wayward off the tee for most of the day, Rory McIlroy put together a 5-under 67 on Thursday and sits one stroke off the lead after the first round at The Players.
McIlroy missed an uncharacteristic 10 fairways, ranking 81st among the 144-man field in strokes gained off the tee. Usually his strong suit, McIlroy’s driver was all over the place. But more often than not, he missed his tee shots to the right.
“I certainly didn’t drive it the way I wanted to. Didn’t hit it in as many fairways as I would have liked. Yeah, I think with the greens being so receptive, you can get away with it a little bit. I’m not going to be able to get away with it for the rest of the week. Sort of rode my luck out there a little bit,” McIlroy said.
“But I’m trying to hit this cut shot into play. Missing right off the tee here on any hole is way better than missing left. Just sort of hitting this cut sort of up into the wind, and obviously you don’t need to hit it too.”
He closed with another right miss on the 18th fairway, but hit a gorgeous recovery shot from the pine straw that led to his seventh and final birdie of the day.
Camilo Villegas, J.J. Spaun, and 2009 U.S. Open champion Lucas Glover hold the 18-hole lead at 6-under par.
The Players Championship Round 2 Tee Times (ET):
* — 10th hole start
7:40 a.m. — Henrik Norlander, Ricky Castillo, Ben Kohles
7:40 a.m.* — Doug Ghim, Ryan Fox, Sami Valimaki
7:51 a.m. — Eric Cole, Ben Griffin, Max Greyserman
7:51 a.m.* — Andrew Putnam, Charley Hoffman, Denny McCarthy
8:02 a.m. — J.J. Spaun, Jacob Bridgeman, Chandler Phillips
8:02 a.m.* — Daniel Berger, Min Woo Lee, Rasmus Højgaard
8:13 a.m. — Emiliano Grillo, Byeong Hun An, Adam Schenk
8:13 a.m.* — Harris English, Billy Horschel, Justin Rose
8:24 a.m. — Taylor Pendrith, Peter Malnati, Kurt Kitayama
8:24 a.m.* — Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele
8:35 a.m. — Brice Garnett, Matthieu Pavon, Camilo Villegas
8:35 a.m.* — Collin Morikawa, Adam Scott, Tommy Fleetwood
8:46 a.m. — Austin Eckroat, Jake Knapp, Taylor Moore
8:46 a.m.* — Keegan Bradley, Rickie Fowler, Patrick Cantlay
8:57 a.m. — Nico Echavarria, Kevin Yu, Erik van Rooyen
8:57 a.m.* — Nick Dunlap, Akshay Bhatia, Tom Kim
9:08 a.m. — Karl Vilips, Sam Burns, Cameron Young
9:08 a.m.* — Harry Hall, Chris Gotterup, Si Woo Kim
9:19 a.m. — K.H. Lee, Carson Young, Patrick Fishburn
9:19 a.m.* — Jhonattan Vegas, Matt Kuchar, Adam Hadwin
9:30 a.m. — Trey Mullinax, Ryo Hisatsune, Laurie Canter
9:30 a.m.* — Sam Ryder, Greyson Sigg, Mac Meissner
9:41 a.m. — Kris Ventura, Kevin Roy, Jackson Suber
9:41 a.m.* — Max McGreevy, Ryan Gerard, Frankie Capan III
12:45 p.m. — Lanto Griffin, Andrew Novak, David Lipsky
12:45 p.m.* — Chad Ramey, C.T. Pan, Vince Whaley
12:56 p.m. — Keith Mitchell, Justin Lower, Nicolai Højgaard
12:56 p.m.* — Joel Dahmen, Patrick Rodgers, Chan Kim
1:07 p.m. — Michael Kim, Alex Smalley, Sam Stevens
1:07 p.m.* — Beau Hossler, Mark Hubbard, Ben Silverman
1:18 p.m. — Maverick McNealy, Brian Harman, Tony Finau
1:18 p.m.* — Rafael Campos, Davis Riley, Gary Woodland
1:29 p.m. — Ludvig Åberg, Hideki Matsuyama, Justin Thomas
1:29 p.m.* — Joe Highsmith, Brian Campbell, Matt McCarty
1:40 p.m. — Russell Henley, Shane Lowry, Viktor Hovland
1:40 p.m.* — Patton Kizzire, Lucas Glover, Corey Conners
1:51 p.m. — Wyndham Clark, Danny Walker, Jordan Spieth
1:51 p.m.* — Sahith Theegala, Matt Fitzpatrick, Will Zalatoris
2:02 p.m. — Thomas Detry, Sepp Straka, Nick Taylor
2:02 p.m.* — Davis Thompson, Stephan Jaeger, Tom Hoge
2:13 p.m. — J.T. Poston, Seamus Power, Mackenzie Hughes
2:13 p.m.* — Aaron Rai, Cam Davis, Christiaan Bezuidenhout
2:24 p.m. — Chris Kirk, Luke List, Adam Svensson
2:24 p.m.* — Robert MacIntyre, Max Hona, Sungjae Im
2:35 p.m. — Bud Cauley, Matti Schmid, David Skinns
2:35 p.m.* — Nate Lashley, Will Gordon, Rico Hoey
2:46 p.m. — Hayden Springer, Jesper Svensson, Will Chandler
2:46 p.m.* — Alejandro Tosti, Isaiah Salinda, Aldrich Potgieter
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Follow him on X @jack_milko.
