Rory McIlroy posts ugly PGA Tour first at PGA Championship

The world’s best golfers are in Pennsylvania this week for the 108th PGA Championship from Aronimink Golf Club. Thursday’s opening round has seen a lot of high scores, and the leaderboard lacks the usual star power. One of the biggest names on the PGA Tour, Rory McIlroy, was among those who struggled.

McIlroy signed for a 4-over 76 after his first round. That is currently seven shots back of several co-leaders at 3-under.

He actually was in decent shape after his first 14 holes. Then he did something he had never done before in his professional career, spanning 990 rounds on the PGA Tour. McIlroy closed his round with four consecutive bogeys for the first time, per golf statistician Justin Ray.

Afterward, the six-time major winner was asked to sum up his round. He provided just one word: “sh**.”

The Northern Irishman began his day on the back nine at the par-4 10th. He bogeyed that hole, which proved to be a sign of things to come. McIlroy bounced right back with a birdie on 11 before parring the rest of his front nine.

He remained steady in the tricky conditions through the first three holes of his back nine. But fell back into red figures again on the par-4 4th. Once again, McIlroy rebounded with a par-breaker on 5 to get back to even par.

That set the stage for the two-time PGA Championship winner’s final four holes.

Interestingly, there was not a specific part of his game that was awful on Thursday. The problem is that he didn’t do anything well, either. McIlroy currently ranks outside the top 100 in strokes gained putting, off the tee, on approach, and tee-to-green, per Data Golf.

The World No. 2 will be part of the late wave on Friday, and will need to go low if he wants to play the weekend.

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