Rainy Doral holds up McIlroy’s progress

They began the season together in Abu Dhabi in January, bizarrely twirling putters over their heads and shuffling awkwardly alongside a traditional Emirati Al-Ayala dance troupe as they performed an appearance fee-generating pre-tournament jig.

Fast forward a couple of months and Phil Mickelson and Rory McIlroy are at it again, this time dodging and weaving around the bad weather and the great Blue Monster that has been given a lot more bite thanks to the $250 million fortune Donald Trump is pumping into Doral to restore it to its former glory (with a Trump twist, of course).

Withdrew
The exciting young Australian Jason Day was expected to join the two major winners in a gathering of the world numbers four, five and six. But as Day withdrew on the range, troubled by a left thumb injury that has been bothering him since he won the WGC-Accenture Match Play in Tucson, we were treated to a chance to compare and contrast the styles of two of golf's most exciting players in a warm southwest wind that gusted to 25 mph and more.

That they only got nine holes in before the weather – heavy rain that accompanied a "tornado watch" forecast – brought play to a halt shortly after lunch said as much about the organisers' emphasis on the TV market, with all 69 players going out between 11 and one o'clock, as it did about the excruciatingly slow pace of play.

Forced to wait
Stuck behind Dustin Johnson, Matt Kuchar and Jordan Spieth, they were forced to wait on every hole on an overcast day, with the air heavy with humidity and the promise of rain that eventually arrived in bucketfuls.

Jason Dufner was leading on five under par through 10 holes, one better than Honda Classic winner Russell Henley (10 holes) and two ahead of Luke Donald (11) and Patrick Reed (6).

It took a while for them to get going but there was plenty of evidence to support the theory of Pádraig Harrington and Paul McGinley that McIlroy will always be more like a Mickelson than a Tiger Woods, with the Ulster man going through the turn in one under to Mickelson’s level par.

Their games could not be more different – Mickelson painting with wild and adventurous brushstrokes to McIlroy’s textbook straight lines. But it is precisely because they both serve up the golfing equivalent of a rollercoaster ride that they drew the biggest gallery of the day outside the trio of Woods, Adam Scott and Henrik Stenson.

Even allowing for the fact Stenson had a stone-cold shank from the middle of the fairway at the second and followed his opening birdie with a double-bogey six, Mickelson and McIlroy made for fascinating viewing.

As Woods, showing no ill effects from the back injury that forced him to retire after 13 holes at the Honda Classic on Sunday, mixed five pars with a bogey four at the 196-yard fourth, McIlroy reeled off four effortless birdies and a bogey in his first six holes before dropping shots at the 17th and 18th.

Stellar second
Having hit a stellar second to the par-five 10th and two putted for birdie, McIlroy drove into the tree right of the 12th but found the front bunker in two and holed a five-footer for another birdie.

A cut five-iron to the 210-yard 13th game up short on the front of the green but the 24-year old rolled in the putt from just outside 50 feet for a two and then followed a sloppy bogey at the 14th with another two at the next, where he punched “a really nice little seven-iron” in to eight feet and rolled in the putt.

Playing lovely, controlled golf for most of the round, he hit a glorious drive down the 17th and ended up walking off with a bogey after his approach from 143 yards bored through the wind and finished 60 feet beyond the flag, from where he three-putted.

At the Blue Monster 18th, he hit a low bullet down the right but it drew slightly, pitched in the middle of the fairway and trickled slowly towards the lake, clipping a red stake before sliding into the deep.

'Tough day'
"It was a tough day," McIlroy said. "I mean, it was windy out there with a couple of tricky pin positions but I got off to a really good start, three-under through four holes, and then bogeyed the last couple of holes play that I had, 17 and 18."

"I hit a really good drive off of 18 and it pitched on the fairway but Phil got unlucky, too, because he actually pitched his second shot on the green and it went in the water. So it just you know, it's just such a tough hole. You get it slightly wrong, and you're in the water.

'Good path'
"Of course I wanted to get a fast start. I'm playing well and I'm comfortable with my game. I wasn't going to let one bad day last week sort of derail the good path that I'm on."

Graeme McDowell was one over par through seven holes as he started with a bogey six at the first, where he pushed his approach into the new lake right of the green.

He then holed a bunker shot for a birdie at the next, bogeyed the third after finding sand twice and followed a fine birdie from seven feet at the fifth with a bogey at the seventh, where he again found water right of the green with his approach.