Rory McIlroy’s mini-blip proves costly at Quail Hollow

Rory McIlroy's post-round demeanour captured a full range of emotions. Disappointment was one; frustration another, after an opening round 72 that left him five strokes behind first-round leaders Thorbjorn Olesen, of Denmark, and American Kevin Kisner here in this 99th US PGA Championship at Quail Hollow Golf Club in the suburbs of Charlotte, North Carolina.

But most of all, there was a sense of anticipation of what still lies ahead. “I’m only five behind . . . . it’s a tough golf course. I shoot something in the 60s [in the second round], I move right up there. So, yeah, I’m in it. Yeah,” said the 27-year-old Northern Irishman who squandered a number of shots coming home, most especially on the 13th and 14th holes where he went bogey-double bogey.

That six on the driveable par-4 14th was very costly, as McIlroy’s quest to find the green with a 3-wood resulted in a watery grave for his ball. And that error was compounded when, after taking a one-shot penalty drop beside the hazard, he duffed his recovery chip to the extent that it failed to find the putting surface.

Did he regret the decision to go for the green? “I would say 75 per cent of the field are going for the green, I just turned it over too much . . . I just overcooked it a little bit. But that wasn’t the reason I made double. Obviously I hit it in the water but it was the first chip shot, that was the disappointing thing. I still could have made a par from that and moved on. But no, the play, it was the right play. Especially for that back pin. I just didn’t execute it properly.”

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The primary disappointment for McIlroy was that he’d put himself into position to challenge, getting to two-under through 12 holes, only to leak those shots back-to-back on 13 and 14 and then fail to birdie the par-5 15th, a hole which played as the easiest of the first round.

“Yeah, if I just could have had that three-hole stretch back, but I think other than that, I played nicely,” said McIlroy, adding “the surfaces on the greens just got a little grainy as the afternoon went on and I’m looking forward to getting some better surfaces in the morning.”